m 


THE    CHRISTIAN    LEAGUE 
OF    CONNECTICUT. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LEAGUE 
OF  CONNECTICUT 


THE     CENTURY     CO. 
NEW-YORK 


Copyright,  1883,  by  THE  CENTURY  Co. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    LEAGUE    OF 
CONNECTICUT. 

I. 

THE  first  of  the  many  snow-storms  that 
made  memorable  the  winter  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  seventy-five  had  just  fallen 
on  the  smooth  roads  of  New  Albion ;  a  slight 
thaw  with  a  following  frost  had  polished  up  the 
sleighing,  and  two  hearty-looking  gentlemen, 
behind  a  powerful  gray  horse  that  needed  no 
urging,  were  taking  their  first  taste  of  the  winter 
pastime.  They  seemed  to  be  enjoying  it ;  for, 
as  they  flew  past  the  pedestrians  toiling  along 
the  sidewalk,  their  faces  shone  and  their  laughter 
rang  merrily.  The  one  who  held  the  reins  was 
a  man  of  forty,  smooth-shaven,  but  for  a  narrow, 
brown  side-whisker;  with  a  clear  and  fair  skin, 
into  which  the  stinging  winter  air  was  bringing 
a  healthy  crimson  tint ;  a  strong  chin,  a  well 
chiseled  nose  and  brow,  a  blue  eye,  and  a  kindly 
smile.  You  would  have  guessed  he  was  a  clergy- 
man, and  would  have  missed  ;  he  was  the  cashier 
and  manager  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  New 


2  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Albion.  The  other  was  perhaps  a  little  younger, 
with  dark  skin,  full  beard,  and  bright,  black  eye ; 
his  figure  was  slight  but  well  made,  and  he  wore 
a  gray  ulster,  and  a  sealskin  cap  without  a  visor ; 
a  journalist,  you  would  have  said,  or  perhaps  an 
artist,  and  would  have  been  wrong  again ;  for  he 
was  the  Rev.  Theodore  Strong,  pastor  of  the 
Second  Congregational  Church  in  the  same 
thriving  town.  The  cashier,  Mr.  Franklin,  was 
his  parishioner,  and  had  been  his  college  class- 
mate ;  the  old  friendship  had  been  the  cause  of  the 
minister's  location  in  his  present  pastorate,  and 
was  now  one  of  its  strong  supports.  Old  Major, 
the  good  gray  horse,  had  learned  well  the  way 
to  the  parsonage,  before  which  he  used  often  to 
halt  after  banking  hours ;  whence  the  parson,  if 
he  was  to  be  had,  was  whirled  away  for  a  breezy 
hour  or  two  on  the  country  roads.  These  drives 
with  his  old  friend  were  unadulterated  recreation. 
It  was  a  distinct  understanding  between  them 
that  the  cares  of  the  bank  and  the  parish  were 
always  to  be  left  behind. 

"  No  shop,  now,  old  fellow  !  "  Franklin  had 
said  when  he  came  for  his  friend  the  first  time ; 
"  religion  and  business  ought  to  be  mixed  some- 
times, no  doubt;  but,  for  you  and  me,  just  now, 
rest  is  both  business  and  religion." 

To  such  a  respite  the  hard- worked  parson  was 
nothing  loth,  and  the  hours  thus  spent  were  full 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  3 

of  the  keenest  delight.  All  anxieties  being 
resolutely  left  behind,  the  minds  of  both  friends 
were  free  to  take  in  every  fresh  phase  of  roadside 
beauty,  every  new  glory  of  sky  or  river  or 
meadow.  Other  common  pleasures  they  had  in 
books  and  studies  beyond  the  range  of  their 
work,  of  which  they  communed  with  much 
invigorating  conversation ;  while,  as  each  was 
a  good  story-teller  and  sure  to  pick  up  a  budget 
of  mirthful  anecdote,  their  discourse  was  plenti- 
fully spiced  with  fun. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  the  banker 
always  refused  to  consult  with  the  pastor  about 
the  parish  work ;  on  the  contrary,  he  was  his 
most  trusted  and  judicious  counselor ;  it  was 
only  that  these  hours  of  recreation  were  sacredly 
guarded  from  the  intrusion  of  professional 
anxieties. 

On  this  December  afternoon  the  talk  had 
ranged  widely  as  usual,  and  had  kept  clear,  as 
usual,  of  all  work-day  topics,  when,  suddenly, 
Mr.  Strong,  in  a  tone  half  apologetic,  broke  out : 

"  'Ware,  Walt !  I'm  coming  perilously  near  to 
the  Second  Parish  in  my  next  remark — as  near 
as  Bradford." 

"  Twenty  miles  !  Rather  dangerous  !  Well,  go 
ahead ;  but  see  that  you  keep  your  distance." 

"  The  matter  is  this :  Johns,  of  the  East 
Church,  in  that  metropolis,  is  trying  to  start  a 


4  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Congregational  club,  into  which  he  wants  to 
gather  all  of  that  ilk  in  this  region, —  representa- 
tives, at  any  rate,  of  all  the  principal  churches ; 
he  has  written  me  to  come  up  to  help  him  incu- 
bate the  project.  Shall  I  go  ?  " 

"Yes,  go,  and  'sit  on  it'  hard." 

"  You  are  explicit,  as  usual.  Now  tell  me  why. 
Don't  you  like  Congregational  clubs  ?  " 

"  Never  tried  one.  But  clubs  are  generally 
wooden  things.  What  is  it  proposed  to  do  with 
this  one  ?  " 

"  Oh,  there  is  to  be  a  supper,  of  course,  once 
a  month ;  and  a  paper  read  by  somebody  after 
supper,  and  a  discussion  of  the  paper,  and  a 
general  powwow  after  the  discussion." 

"  Just  so.  Stuff,  talk, — that's  a  club.  But  what 
special  topics  do  you  think  this  one  will  be  most 
apt  to  light  on  ?  " 

"  Denominational  topics,  largely,  of  course ; 
how  to  consolidate  our  churches  ;  how  to  increase 
the  esprit  du  corps  ;  how  to  promote  our  various 
benevolent  enterprises." 

"  Certainly.  It  is  part  of  a  movement  to 
stiffen  the  last  syllable  of  that  sesquipedalian 
sectarian  substantive,  '  Congregatdonaltro*,'  I  do 
not  like  the  name  at  all,  and  the  sting  in  its  tail, 
which  it  is  now  proposed  to  sharpen  and  harden, 
is  the  part  I  like  least." 

"There  you  go  again,"  laughed  the  parson. 
"  It's  a  downright  insult,  Major,  when  a  man 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  e 

»  r 

with  such  a  horse  as  you  are  insists  on  riding 
a  hobby." 

"  Oh,  well,"  continued  the  banker,  "  there's 
nothing  particularly  sinful  in  this  indulgence 
that  the  Bradford  Congregationalists  propose ; 
doubtless,  the  fellows  who  like  to  run  things  will 
enjoy  it  much,  but  I  doubt  if  the  outcome  is 
valuable.  There  will  be  some  increase  of  good- 
fellowship,  and  much  burning  of  incense  under 
the  nose  of  the  idol  of  the  tribe.  The  more  per- 
fect the  success  of  the  club  shall  be,  the  further 
off  will  be  the  practical  cooperation  to  which  we 
must  come  at  last." 

"  There  is  truth  in  what  you  say,"  answered 
the  parson  ;  "  and  I  own  that  I  am  coming  more 
arid  more  to  your  way  of  thinking  about  such 
matters.  But  when  two  ride  a  hobby  one  must 
ride  behind,  and  I  am  not  yet  quite  so  fierce  a 
foe  of  the  sects  as  you  are." 

For  a  few  moments  there  was  silence,  broken 
only  by  the  click  of  Major's  hoofs  upon  the  icy 
road  and  the  sough  of  the  wind  through  the 
pine  forest  by  the  side  of  which  they  were 
driving. 

"  Look  here,  Theo,"  the  banker  at  length  con- 
tinued, "  couldn't  we  do  a  better  thing?" 

"  Several  things,  no  doubt  But  what,  for 
instance  ?" 

"  Couldn't  we  organize  a  Christian  League 
Club  here  in  New  Albion?" 


g  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

•* 

"  Softly,  softly,  sir ;  you  are  breaking  over 
bounds." 

"  I  know  I  am ;  but  you  began  it." 

"And  what  was  said,  a  few  minutes  ago,  about 
clubs?" 

"  I  remember ;  but  there  are  clubs  and  clubs. 
This  need  not  be  a  wooden  one — indeed,  it 
couldn't  be ;  it  would  have  to  be  made  on  a  very 
pliable  pattern. 

"  Show  us  how." 

"  The  thing  has  no  shape  in  my  own  mind 
yet ;  but  why  shouldn't  we  strike  for  a  little 
practical  Christian  union  in  this  town  ?  We  have 
enough  of  the  sentimental  sort,  and  bad  enough 
it  is.  The  union  meetings  of  the  week  of -prayer 
always  bring  out  the  prayer-meeting  rounders, 
—  men  who  have  no  standing  in  their  own 
churches  nor  among  their  fellow-citizens ;  men 
like  old  Bill  Snodgrass,  who  can  reel  off  cant  by 
the  fathom,  and  whose  word,  in  any  business 
transaction,  is  as  good  as  his  bond  only  because 
neither  of  them  is  worth  a  row  of  pins.  There 
never  is  a  union  meeting  in  which  Bill  doesn't 
exalt  his  horn  at  least  twice.  Then  there  is 
young  Cyrus  Smiley,  the  effusive  and  irrepres- 
sible, and  Tom  Trafton,  the  censorious  sputterer, 
whose  prayers  are  mainly  digs  at  the  ministers." 

"  I  know  it,"  broke  in  Mr.  Strong,  greatly 
amused  at  the  vivid  characterization  of  his 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  j 

friend.  "  But  have  you  heard  Trafton's  last  on 
his  own  pastor?" 

"  No  ;   what  was  it  ?" 

"  Dr.  Sampson  told  me  the  story  himself.  You 
know  that  Tom  has  taken  a  special  dislike  to  the 
Doctor,  and  betrays  it  in  all  his  prayers.  The 
other  night,  in  the  prayer-meeting,  he  said,  in 
his  jerky  way :  '  O  Lord,  grant  that  our  temp'r'l 
food  may  not  be  so  skerse  and  poor  as  the  spir- 
itooal  food  pervided  for  us ;  for  ef  it  is,  we  sh'll 
all  be  in  the  poor-house  within  six  months.' ' 

Franklin  laughed. 

"  Tom  outdid  himself  that  time.  Think  of  let- 
ting such  a  creature  loose  in  a  prayer-meeting ! 
But  that  is  the  sort  of  person  that  revels  in 
union  meetings.  At  home  he  can  be  suppressed, 
at  least  in  part;  but  a  joint  service  of  the 
churches  gives  him  vent.  So  that,  practically, 
our  attempt  at  Christian  union  consists  mainly 
in  meeting  together  a  few  times  a  year,  to  be 
rasped  and  disgusted  by  these  persons  who  put 
themselves  forward  as  the  representatives  of  our 
common  Protestantism.  Now,  I  wonder  whether 
some  plan  could  not  be  devised  by  which  the 
real  people  in  our  churches  could  be  brought  into 
working  union,  and  the  flood-trash  kept  out" 

"Yes,  that's  the  question.  But  you  don't  seem 
to  get  ahead  very  fast  in  answering  it." 

"  Patience,  patience,  young  man  !    We'll  work 


g  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

this  thing  out,  but  it  will  take  time.  The  fact  is, 
New  Albion  is  an  excellent  place  to  start  such 
an  experiment.  The  relations  between  the 
churches  are  amicable ;  there  has  been  no  un- 
necessary multiplication  of  religious  societies  as 
yet;  there  are  no  churches  here  that  ought  to 
be  killed,  except  one  or  two  colored  churches ; 
the  population  is  intelligent,  the  ministers  are  all 
good  friends;  the  thing  can  be  done." 

"  Undoubtedly,  my  eloquent  friend  ;  but  what 
thing  ?" 

"  We  can  have  a  meeting,  from  time  to  time, 
of  the  ministers  and  certain  representative  men 
of  the  various  churches,  to  consult  about  the 
interests  of  morality  and  religion  in  this  com- 
munity. That's  the  dry  bones  of  it." 

"  The  next  question  is  how  to  make  these  dry 
bones  live." 

"  Yes,  and  you  must  help  me  solve  that.  Your 
practical  tact  and  skill  in  managing  people  come 
in  play  just  here." 

"  Thank  you  !  I  wish  devoutly  that  something 
of  the  sort  could  be  brought  about,  and  I  v/ill 
do  my  best  to  devise  a  feasible  way  of  accom- 
plishing it.  But  it  must  be  managed  cautiously. 
Don't  flush  your  game  !" 

Old  Major  had  arrived  at  the  parsonage,  and 
the  parson  dismounted,  with  a  promise  to  give 
the  matter  of  which  they  had  been  talking  early 
and  full  attention. 


II. 


THE  problem  which  we  have  seen  the  banker 
and  the  parson  getting  ready  to  attack  is  a 
knotty  and  an  ifrgent  one.  How  to  bring  the 
Christian  churches  of  our  country  into  practical 
unity  ;  this  is  a  question  round  about  which  a 
great  deal  of  talk  has  been  going  on,  but  to  the 
careful  consideration  of  which  but  few  minds 
have  been  turned.  All  the  discussion  has 
vibrated  between  two  points :  the  desirableness 
of  a  spiritual  fellowship  among  denominations, 
and  the  feasibility  of  an  organic  union  of  the 
denominations.  A  great  multitude  agree  in  say- 
ing that  the  sects  ought  to  dwell  together  in 
unity, —  that  is  to  say,  that  the  ministers  ought 
to  exchange  pulpits,  and  that  members  ought  to 
pass  freely  by  letter  from  one  church  to  another, 
and  that  Christians  ought  to  meet  now  and  then 
in  union  meetings,  and  say  pleasant  things  in 
their  prayers  and  speeches  about  one  another, 
and  sing  together 

"  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds," 


I0  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

and  so  on.  So  much  of  Christian  union  as  this, 
nearly  everybody  believes  in.  The  more  strenu- 
ous sectarians  stick  at  some  of  these  points,  but 
not  very  persistently ;  to  refuse  this  much  in- 
volves some  measure  of  opprobrium.  But  there 
are  many  who  insist  that,  while  Christian  union 
may  have  this  extent,  it  can  have  no  more ;  that 
it  is  vain,  and,  indeed,  rather  sacrilegious  to  ask 
for  anything  beyond  this.  Others  declare  that 
this  sentimental  union  is  of  no  value ;  that  what 
we  want  and  must  have  is  organic  union,  a 
consolidation  of  all  the  sects  into  one  church, 
so  that  Protestantism  shall  stand  over  against 
Romanism,  compact  and  united,  all  under  one 
central  government,  moving  with  well  ordered 
and  harmonious  march  to  the  conquest  of  the 
world.  These  two  conceptions  have  divided 
between  them  the  debaters  about  Christian 
unity ;  and  it  must  be  owned  that  each  side 
brings  against  the  other  arguments  that  are  well- 
nigh  unanswerable.  The  believers  in  what  is 
called  spiritual  unity  insist  that  the  organic  unity 
asked  for  is  impossible ;  the  believers  in  organic 
unity  declare  that  spiritual  unity,  as  it  now  exists, 
is  of  very  little  consequence. 

Some  abatement  of  these  extreme  views  must, 
indeed,  be  made  on  both  sides.  The  measure  of 
unity  to  which  the  churches  have  already  at- 
tained is  by  no  means  to  be  despised ;  their 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  l  l 

relations  are  vastly  better  than  they  were  forty 
years  ago,  when  Presbyterians  or  Congregation- 
alists  had  no  more  dealings  with  Methodists  or 
Baptists  than  the  Jews  once  had  with  the  Samar- 
itans ;  when  keen  contempt  and  bitter  abuse  were 
common  currency  among  the  sects.  It  is  not  a 
slight,  but  an  important  gain,  that  Christians  of 
all  names  are  able  now  to  meet  together  on 
friendly  terms  in  social  worship.  On  the  other 
side,  it  is  too  much  to  say  that  the  dream  of  the 
Church  existing  as  one  compact  body  can  never 
be  realized.  Stranger  things  than  that  have  come 
to  pass.  The  truth  lies  about  midway  between 
these  disputants.  The  spiritual  unity  to  which 
we  have  attained,  though  not  worthless,  is  ridicu- 
lously inadequate  to  the  present  need  of  the 
Church ;  and  the  organic  unity  for  which  we  are 
exhorted  to  labor,  though  it  may  not  be  impos- 
sible, is  yet  a  long  way  off.  Is  there  not,  some- 
Avhere  between  the  emotional  fellowship  of  the 
present  and  the  organized  ecclesiasticism  of  the 
future,  a  measure  of  cooperation  that  is  both 
desirable  and  attainable  ?  This  was  the  problem 
to  which  the  practical  mind  of  Mr.  Walter  Frank- 
lin had  turned.  He  was  a  man,  as  his  pastor 
well  knew,  who  had  a  way  of  bringing  things  to 
pass ;  and  Mr.  Strong  was  not  therefore  sur- 
prised, at  the  close  of  the  next  Sunday  evening's 
service,  to  be  joined  at  the  church  door  by  his 


12  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

friend,  with  an  ominous  gleam  of  speculation  in 
his  eyes. 

"Pretty  well  used  up  to-night,  Theo  ?"  he 
queried.  The  Romans  knew  how  to  convey 
more  delicately  the  hope  of  a  negative  answer. 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  the  minister,  who  never 
knew  on  Sunday  night  how  tired  he  was.  "  Fresh 
as  a  lark.  Come  home  with  me,  and  we'll  have 
it  out." 

"Have  what  out  ?" 

"  That  matter  that  you're  eager  to  talk  about 
You  have  done  bravely  in  keeping  away  till  the 
Sunday  work  was  over,  and  I  haven't  the  heart 
to  put  you  off  any  longer.  Come  on." 

"  Seems  to  me  I  have  detected  a  few  delicate 
allusions  to  it  in  sermons  and  prayers  to-day. 
Your  mind's  as  full  of  it  as  mine  is,  dissembler ! 
And  I'm  only  going  over  with  you  to  find  out 
your  plans." 

"  Well,"  said  the  parson,  as  he  let  his  friend 
in  at  the  door  of  the  parsonage,  "  it  has  been 
on  my  mind  now  and  then,  I  own.  And  the 
place  to  begin  is  Jerusalem.  I  saw  Dr.  Phelps 
last  week,  and,  in  talking  about  church  sociables 
and  so  forth,  I  asked  him  why  the  Old  Church 
did  not  sometimes  invite  their  neighbors  to  their 
festivities.  He  took  me  up  at  once,  of  course, 
and  told  me  very  cordially  to  come  over  to  their 
sociable  on  Tuesday  evening,  and  to  bring  along 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  13 

a  good  delegation  of  the  Second  Church  people. 
I  replied  that  it  was  rather  hard  to  be  obliged  to 
beg  an  invitation ;  but  that  I  should  pocket  my 
humiliation  and  go,  which  seemed  to  please  the 
old  gentleman  mightily.  So  I  want  you  and 
your  wife,  and  Deacon  Hunter  and  his  wife,  and 
Shaw  and  his  mother,  and  the  Burnham  girls, 
and  a  few  others — a  dozen  or  fifteen  of  our 
wide-awake  people  —  to  meet  here  on  Tuesday 
night,  and  we  will  go  over  in  a  body  and  take 
'em  by  storm." 

"  Capital ! "  exclaimed  Franklin.  "  The  church 
sociable  is  one  of  the  strongholds  of  sectarian 
exclusiveness ;  if  we  can  capture  that  and  turn 
its  guns  upon  the  enemy,  one  great  point  will 
be  gained." 

"  There  is  no  need  of  despising  the  church 
sociable,"  replied  the  minister.  "  It  serves  a 
good  purpose,  and  is  no  more  accountable  than 
the  Church  itself  for  '  sectarian  exclusiveness.' 
Human  nature  is  to  blame  for  that,  not  the 
Church,  nor  the  sociable." 

"  But  I  am  not  talking  about  remote  causes," 
persisted  the  banker.  "  What  I  see  is  this  :  the 
church  sociables  in  most  of  our  villages  and  large 
towns  cut  up  society  into  cliques.  Active  and 
zealous  church  members  find  but  little  time  for 
the  cultivation  of  social  relations  beyond  the 
bounds  of  their  own  parishes.  I  have  heard  it 


!4  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

said,  more  than  once,  by  intelligent  citizens,  that 
there  is  not  much  general  social  intercourse 
among  the  best  people  of  this  town,  and  that  the 
fault  lies  at  the  doors  of  the  churches.  The  First 
Church  people  are  a  set  by  themselves,  and  so 
are  the  Second  Church  people,  and  the  Episco- 
palians, and  the  Baptists,  and  all  the  rest.  The 
devotion  of  the  church  members  to  their  own 
societies  hinders  the  development  of  a  broad, 
social  life." 

"  That  is  true,"  answered  Strong,  "  and  there 
is  something  here  to  regret,  beyond  question. 
Nevertheless,  there  are  compensations,  which 
you,  Walter  Franklin,  must  not  overlook.  If 
the  churches  have  somewhat  hindered  the  culti-- 
vated  classes  outside  of  the  large  cities  from  con- 
sorting together,  they  have  also  helped  to  bring 
together  the  cultivated  and  the  uncultivated 
classes,  and  that  is  one  of  the  things  that  most 
need  to  be  done.  They  have  substituted  verti- 
cal lines  of  division  in  society  for  horizontal  ones. 
Bad  as  the  church  cliques  are,  they  are  not  so 
bad  as  the  stratifications  of  social  aestheticism. 
But  I  am  not  defending  social  exclusiveness  in 
the  churches ;  I  am  trying  to  overcome  it,  as  a 
step  toward  something  higher." 

"  You  are  perfectly  right,  and  you  may  count 
on  me.  We  will  be  on  hand  Tuesday  evening. 
Good-night !  " 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  l$ 

It  was  a  merry  company  that  followed  Mr. 
Strong  into  the  parlors  of  the  First  Church  ;  and 
though  they  were  received  at  first  with  polite 
bewilderment,  it  was  not  long  before  hospitality 
and  good-fellowship  asserted  themselves  in  the 
heartiest  fashion.  The  hosts  exerted  themselves 
to  entertain  their  guests,  voted  the  innovation  a 
delightful  one,  and  promised  to  return  the  visit. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  fraterniza- 
tions among  the  churches  of  New  Albion ;  none 
were  neglected  ;  the  Adventists,  who  worshiped 
in  Central  Hall,  and  the  two  colored  churches, 
were  surprised  in  their  turn  by  visiting  delega- 
tions from  the  other  churches  that  dropped  in 
at  their  prayer-meetings,  and  stopped  afterward 
to  shake  hands  and  to  say  a  few  pleasant  words. 
So  far  as  it  could  be  done  socially,  the  ecclesias- 
tical entente  cordiale  was  fairly  established  in  this 
prosperous  town. 

All  this  was  so  much  of  the  nature  of  a  recre- 
ation, that  the  banker  and  his  friend  excepted  it 
from  the  list  of  forbidden  subjects,  and  often 
chanted  the  praises  of  Christian  fraternity  to  the 
music  of  Major's  sleigh-bells. 

"  It  is  all  excellent,  so  far  as  it  goes,"  said  the 
banker,  one  day  in  January  ;  "  but  I  want  to  see 
the  thing  put  on  a  business  basis.  The  im- 
provement in  the  social  relations  of  the  churches 
is  a  great  gain ;  it  signifies  vastly  more  to  have 


rg  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

the  people  meet  in  this  friendly  way,  and  show 
each  other  neighborly  courtesies,  than  to  have 
them  talk  the  cant  of  Christian  union  now  and 
then  in  a  prayer-meeting — but  it  is  not  enough. 
We  want  some  method  by  which  this  fraternity 
shall  have  a  distinct  and  influential  expression." 

"  Exactly,"  answered  the  parson  ;  "  we  have 
been  getting  up  steam ;  now  we  want  to  utilize 
our  power.  How  shall  we  do  it  ?  " 

"  I  thought  you  were  managing  the  business," 
replied  Franklin  ;  "  but,  since  you  ask  the  ques- 
tion, I'll  give  you  my  idea.  Let  us  have  a  little 
party  at  my  house  some  evening,  including  the 
ministers  and  about  three  of  the  best  members 
of  each  church,  and  see  what  comes  of  it." 

"  How  shall  the  three  best  members  of  each 
church  be  chosen  ?  " 

"  We  must  choose  them  ourselves.  We  know 
this  community  well  enough  to  pick  our  men." 

The  preparation  of  this  list  was  not,  however, 
an  easy  matter,  as  the  banker  and  his  pastor 
found.  Mr.  Franklin's  knowledge  of  the  business 
standing  of  the  "  leading  members  "  served  to  thin 
out  Mr.  Strong's  ample  catalogue  of  nominees. 

"  Rodney  Merrill  ?  Yes  ;  he's  a  good  talker, 
but  his  word  doesn't  stand  for  much.  Better 
put  young  Porter,  the  carpenter,  in  his  place. 
Stevenson  ?  H'm  !  He's  a  customer  of  mine  ; 
but  I  don't  like  his  way  of  doing  business. 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  ly 

Montgomery  ?  I've  got  some  memoranda  on 
Montgomery.  He  failed  not.  long  ago ;  and 
not  ten  days  before  the  collapse  he  borrowed  a 
thousand  dollars  at  our  bank,  solemnly  assur- 
ing me  that  he  had  not  less  than  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars  in  available  assets,  and  not  more 
than  five  thousand  dollars  of  debts.  The  in- 
ventory showed  that  his  .figures  were  exactly 
right,  only  the  debts  were  twenty  thousand,  and 
the  assets  five.  It  was  a  mere  slip  of  the  tongue, 
no  doubt;  but  we'll  pass  Montgomery.  This  com- 
pany must  be  a  clean  one,  and  there  is  no  lack 
of  sound  and  reputable  men  in  our  churches." 

"  How  about  the  colored  brethren  ?  "  queried 
Mr.  Strong. 

"  The  colored  brethren  must  be  left  out,"  was 
the  answer ;  "  not  for  social,  but  for  ecclesias- 
tical reasons.  One  of  the  first  duties  of  this 
league  of  ours,  if  it  ever  gets  into  operation,  will 
be  the  suppression  of  these  colored  churches. 
When  the  colored  people  abandon  their  own 
organizations,  and  join  the  other  churches,  they 
may  come  in  as  representatives  from  them.  We 
will  have  no  color-line  in  the  Christianity  for 
which  this  club  stands.  I'll  go  as  far  as  any 
other  man  in  fraternizing  with  colored  men ; 
but  with  colored  churches,  never.  The  secta- 
rianism whose  only  basis  is  the  color  of  the  skin 
is  the  meanest  kind  of  sectarianism." 
2 


III. 


OUT  of  the  thirty-two  persons  invited,  thirty, 
representing  all  of  the  eight  churches  of 
New  Albion,  gathered  in  Mr.  Franklin's  parlors  on 
the  sixteenth  of  January.  The  clergymen  were 
all  present,  and  the  absentees  were  not  conspic- 
uous. Tea  was  served  in  the  parlors,  and  Mr. 
Franklin  was  amused  to  see  how  completely 
sectarian  lines  were  blotted  out  in  "the  grouping 
of  the  guests  about  the  small  tables.  To  the 
eye  of  the  social  devotee  it  would  have  seemed, 
no  doubt,  a  mixed  multitude — people  of  all 
grades  of  society  were  here  ;  but  the  hospitality 
was  so  frank  and  hearty,  and  the  entertainment 
of  such  a  simple  sort,  that  the  humblest  people 
were  at  their  ease.  And  what  was  of  more  con- 
sequence, these  people  were  all  known  to  one 
another  as  being  engaged  in  various  kinds  of 
benevolent  work  in  the  community ;  the  camer- 
aderie  of  Christian  service  was  a  stronger  bond 
than  that  by  which  most  social  circles  are  drawn 
together.  Dr.  Emmons  Hopkins  Phelps,  the 

18 


THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE.  ICj 

venerable  and  well  beloved  pastor  of  the  "  First 
Church  of  Christ  in  New  Albion,"  was  tcte-a- 
tete  with  the  Rev.  Murray  Henderson,  the  young 
pastor  of  the  Universalists ;  Dr.  Thomas  Samp- 
son, the  stalwart  wit  and  excellent  scholar,  who 
adorned  the  pulpit  of  the  Baptist  Church,  was 
cheek  by  jowl  with  the  genial  Dr.  Philip  Strick- 
land, of  St.  Mark's  Episcopal  Church  ;  and  here 
and  there  Congregational  deacons  were  sand- 
wiched between  Episcopal  vestrymen  and 
Methodist  stewards. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  your  happy 
family  when  you  get  them  trained  ?  "  asked  the 
Rev.  John  Wesley  Thorpe,  Methodist,  of  the 
beaming  host. 

"Travel  with  'cm,"  was  the  prompt  answer. 
"  Take  'em  up  to  Hardscrabble  and  West  North- 
field,  and  over  to  Hockset,  and  show  'cm  to  the 
natives  for  ten  cents  admission,  the  proceeds  to 
be  divided  equally  among  the  home  missionary 
societies  of  the  several  denominations." 

"  Such  a  show  would  be  a  great  curiosity  in 
those  parts,  no  doubt,"  said  the  clergyman. 
"  But  my  friend  Peters,  here,  thinks  that  the 
saints  in  Hardscrabble  would  be  horrified  to 
see  Dr.  Phelps  eating  and  drinking  with  a  Uni- 
versalist." 

"  It  is  somewhat  bewildering,  I  own,"  replied 
the  banker.  <!  But  I  think  that,  when  thev 


2Q  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

looked  into  Henderson's  face,  they  could  say 
nothing  against  it.  Look  at  him  now !  It's  a 
face  for  Raphael." 

"Solar  radiance,  isn't  it?"  responded  Peters. 
"  And  the  man  is  as  saintly  as  he  looks.  His 
church  is  growing  in  all  the  graces  a  great  deal 
faster  than  mine  is.  I  wish  the  Free  Baptists 
had  half  as  good  a  minister." 

"  What  do  you  imagine  that  your  bishop 
would  do,  if  he  were  to  look  in  upon  this  com- 
pany ?  "  asked  Dr.  Sampson  of  Dr.  Strickland. 

"  I  imagine,"  was  the  answer,  "  that  he  would 
go  straight  to  Dr.  Buck,  the  editor  of  your 
"  Inquisitor,"  and  tell  him  all  about  it." 

"Very  likely,"  laughed  the  Baptist.  "And 
probably  the  two  would  sit  down  and  have  a 
pleasant  chat  over  it.  Each  one  would  try  to 
make  out  that  the  people  of  his  communion  were 
a  little  nearer  ready  for  fellowship  than  those  of 
the  other." 

"  Oh,  of  course  !  But  I  should  like  to  know 
what  Franklin  has  got  in  his  head.  He  has  not 
invited  this  carefully  selected  company  for  merely 
social  purposes,  you  may  depend.  He  means 
business." 

"  Well,"  answered  Dr.  Sampson,  glancing  about 
the  room,  "he  will  not  be  able  to  carry  this  com- 
pany into  any  very  wild  scheme.  It  is  a  pretty 
solid  set  of  men,  Dr.  Strickland — about  as  good 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  2I 

as  New  Albion  contains,  that's  a  fact.  A  set 
of  men,"  the  Doctor  went  on,  after  a  pause, 
"who,  if  they  should  put  their  heads  and  hands 
together,  could  give  the  old  Adversary  a  great 
deal  of  trouble." 

The  company  was  not  left  long  in  doubt  as  to 
the  plans  of  the  host.  Half  an  hour  after  supper, 
Mr.  Franklin  rose,  and  there  was  silence. 

"  I  have  called  you  together  this  evening,  gen- 
tlemen," he  said,  "  to  consult  about  a  matter  of 
importance.  The  unity  of  feeling  now  existing 
among  the  religious  societies  of  this  town  is  grati- 
fying, and  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  out  of  it 
something  might  grow  that  should  be  for  the 
permanent  good  of  the  community.  We  have 
learned  to  treat  each  other  courteously  in  social 
intercourse ;  can  we  not  work  together  ?  The 
Christian  work  of  this  town  is  imperfectly  done, 
because  what  is  everybody's  business  is  nobody's. 
The  churchless  classes  are  not  reached ;  the  poor 
are  neglected  ;  pauperism  thrives  upon  our  care- 
less and  indiscriminate  charity.  Could  we  not, 
by  meeting  occasionally  for  consultation  about 
this  work,  secure  a  much  more  thorough  per- 
formance of  it  ?  There  is  much  flagrant  vice  in 
our  streets ;  hundreds  of  our  young  people  are 
being  led  into  temptation  and  destroyed.  Could 
we  not,  by  combining  our  efforts,  secure  a  more 
vigorous  enforcement  of  the  laws  for  the  suppres- 


22  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

sion  of  vice,  and  set  on  foot  some  effective  move- 
ment for  the  rescue  and  reclamation  of  these 
young  men  and  women  ?  Furthermore,  the  good 
feeling  now  existing  among  us  is  likely  to  be 
disturbed  at  no  distant  day.  The  town  is  grow- 
ing rapidly ;  other  religious  organizations  will 
be  needed  ;  strife  may  arise  among  the  denom- 
inations for  the  occupancy  of  new  fields.  Is  it 
not  possible  for  a  band  of  Christian  men,  repre- 
senting all  the  churches,  to  exert  an  influence 
which  shall  lead  to  the  amicable  adjustment  of 
all  such  questions  ?  I  am  sure  that  there  is  not 
a  man  in  this  company  who  would  not  at  once 
put  the  interests  of  religion  and  morality  in  this 
community  above  the  interests  of  the  sect  to 
which  he  belongs.  If  this  is  true,  then  we  can, 
if  we  choose,  make  it  the  rule  in  New  Albion 
that  all  Christian  work  shall  be  prosecuted,  not 
on  the  worldly  principle  of  competition,  but  on 
the  Christian  principle  of  cooperation.  Is  not 
this  worth  attempting  ?  In  order  to  bring  the 
matter  to  a  point  at  once,  I  will  read  you  a  draft 
of  a  plan  of  operation  prepared  by  my  friend, 
Dr.  Strong,  and  myself." 

"  CONSTITUTION. 

"  I.  This  organization  shall  be  known  as  The  Christian 
League  Club  of  New  Albion.  It  shall  consist  of  the  minister 
and  three  laymen  from  each  of  the  following  churches  of  this 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  2$ 

town  :  Adventist,  Baptist,  First  and  Second  Congregational, 
Free  Baptist,  Methodist  Episcopal,  Protestant  Episcopal,  and 
Universalist.  Delegations  from  other  churches  hereafter  formed 
may  be  admitted  by  unanimous  consent. 

"  2.  The  object  of  this  organization  shall  be  to  hold  stated 
meetings  for  consultation  respecting  the  Christian  work  to  be 
done  in  New  Albion  and  its  suburbs,  and  the  best  methods  of 
accomplishing  this  work.  The  visitation  and  evangelization  of 
the  churchless  classes,  the  distribution  of  Bibles  and  of  good 
literature,  the  establishment  of  new  missions  when  needed,  the 
care  of  the  poor,  the  prevention  of  vice  and  crime  by  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws,  the  opening  of  coffee-rooms,  reading-rooms, 
and  other  safe  places  of  resort,  the  furnishing  of  cheap  and 
wholesome  diversion  for  the  young  —  these  subjects  and  such 
as  these  will  be  matter  of  consultation  at  the  meetings  of  this 
club. 

"  3.  The  members  of  this  club  shall  never  be  required  to 
assent  to  any  creed  or  confession  of  faith,  nor  shall  doctrinal  or 
theological  discussions  of  any  kind  ever  be  allowed  in  its  meet- 
ings. The  club  shall  assume  no  authority  over  its  members  or 
over  the  churches,  and,  to  guard  against  any  such  encroachments, 
it  shall  never  vote  on  any  question.  Committees  may  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  chairman,  at  any  meeting,  to  carry  out  the  views 
of  the  club ;  but  no  such  committee  shall  be  appointed  without 
unanimous  consent  of  the  members  of  the  club. 

"  4.  Meetings  shall  be  held  on  the  first  Monday  evening  of 
every  month,  at  the  houses  of  the  members,  by  invitation.  The 
member  at  whose  house  the  meeting  is  held  shall  preside.  No 
records  shall  be  kept,  and  the  club  shall  have  no  permanent 
officers. 

"  5.  When  a  vacancy  occurs  in  the  lay  delegation  of  any 
church,  it  shall  be  filled  on  nomination  by  the  pastors  of  the 
other  churches,  who  shall  constitute  a  committee  for  that  pur- 
pose. No  pastor  shall  have  any  voice  in  the  nomination  of  dele- 
gates from  his  own  church,  and  no  name  shall  be  reported  by 
the  committee  of  pastors  on  which  they  are  not  unanimous.  If 
no  objection  is  made  to  the  name  thus  reported,  the  nominee 
shall  be  notified  of  his  election. 


24  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

"This  sketch  of  apian  of  organization,"  con- 
tinued Mr.  Franklin,  as  he  folded  the  paper, 
"brings  before  you,  as  distinctly  as  I  am  able  to 
do  it,  the  thought  in  my  own  mind.  I  will  not 
make  any  further  remarks  about  it.  I  hope  that, 
in  the  free  conversation  that  may  follow,  the 
wisdom  of  the  scheme  will  be  freely  canvassed, 
and  its  defects,  if  defects  there  be,  will  be  pointed 
out." 

The  company  had  listened  with  an  absorbed 
and  rather  anxious  attention  to  the  banker's 
speech.  At  its  close,  the  only  response  was  a 
rather  ostentatious  sigh  of  relief  by  Dr.  Strick- 
land, whereupon  the  whole  assembly  broke  out 
laughing. 

"  Not  quite  so  bad  as  you  feared,  eh  ?  "  said 
Dr.  Sampson. 

"  N-no,"  replied  the  other,  meditatively ;  "  I 
don't  yet  see  how  such  an  institution  could  do 
any  particular  mischief." 

"Its  hands  would  be  so  effectually  tied,"  said 
Mr.  Thorpe,  "that  it  could  do  no  mischief;  but 
are  they  not  so  effectually  tied  that  it  could  not 
do  much  good  ?  " 

"  How  so  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Strong. 

"  Well,  the  provisions  about  voting  and 
keeping  records,  for  instance ;  I  don't  see  how 
an  association  forbidden  to  vote  can  effect 
much." 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  2$ 

"  But  we  do  not  vote  in  prayer-meetings 
or  sociables,"  responded  Mr.  Strong;  "are  not 
they  of  some  service  ?  Would  not  frank  and 
frequent  conferences  about  the  state  of  religion 
and  morals  in  this  town  be  instructive  and  stimu- 
lating, even  if  we  took  no  votes?" 

"  Perhaps  so,"  answered  the  Methodist  pastor. 

"  The  truth  is,"  said  Dr.  Sampson,  with  much 
energy,  "  that  this  voting  business  is  more  often 
a  snare  than  a  help  in  all  sorts  of  organizations. 
A  vote  is  simply  an  expression  of  will,  and  the 
tendency  to  put  will  in  the  place  of  reason  and 
love  is  the  bane  of  all  ecclesiasticism." 

"  But  you  believe  in  the  rule  of  the  majority, 
do  you  not  ?  "  queried  Deacon  Squires,  of  the 
First  Church. 

"  No,  I  don't.  I  submit  to  it  because  it  is 
practically  the  best  thing  to  do,  and  sometimes 
the  only  thing  that  can  be  done.  But  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  majority  shall  rule  implies  a  divi- 
sion of  sentiment  that  ought  always,  in  religious 
work,  to  be  avoided  if  possible.  The  less  we 
have  in  our  Christian  assemblies  of  ruling  and 
of  being  ruled  the  better." 

"The  minority  ought  to  be  expected  to  co- 
operate," suggested  Mr.  Peters. 

"  Certainly,"  answered  Dr.  Sampson,  "  and 
they  ought  to  cooperate.  But  if  half  the  energy 
that  is  expended  in  voting  people  down  were 


26  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

expended  in  conciliating  and  persuading  them, 
we  should  have  fewer  church  quarrels  and  fewer 
disaffected  and  sullen  minorities.  It  is  a  favorite 
superstition  of  this  age  that  nothing  can  be  done 
without  a  vote,  whereas  very  little  that  is  of  per- 
manent value  is  ever  done  by  voting." 

"It  is  clear,"  said  Dr.  Phelps,  quietly,  "that 
such  a  body  of  men  as  this  would  be  must  jeal- 
ously guard  itself  against  the  assumption  of 
ecclesiastical  power.  Perhaps  the  denial  of  a 
vote  is  none  too  stringent  a  safeguard  against 
this  danger." 

"  Well,  I  don't  object  to  it,"  answered  Mr. 
Thorpe.  I  can  see  that  such  a  club  might  do 
some  good  work  without  voting,  and  it  would 
surely  avoid  some  dangers." 

"  But  why  not  let  the  minister  have  some  voice 
in  selecting  the  delegates  from  his  own  church  ?  " 
asked  the  Baptist  Deacon  Jones. 

"That,"  answered  Mr.  Franklin,  "simply  re- 
lieves the  minister  of  a  delicate  responsibility, 
in  the  exercise  of  which  he  might  cause  disaffec- 
tion in  his  own  church." 

"  But  why  not  let  the  church  choose  its  own 
representatives  ?  "  asked  Elder  Bates  of  the  Ad- 
ventists. 

"  Because,"  answered  Mr.  Strong,  "  that  would 
give  to  this  body  an  official  and  representative 
character,  which  we  do  not  wish  to  have  it  possess. 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  2/ 

By  and  by  the  churches  of  this  city  may  be  ready 
to  delegate  to  a  body  representing  them  some 
supervisory  powers ;  they  are  not  yet  ready  to 
do  any  such  thing,  and  we  want  nothing,  there- 
fore, that  looks  like  it." 

"  I  have  a  little  misgiving,"  suggested  Mr. 
Henderson,  "  as  to  the  wisdom  of  a  select  and 
exclusive  organization  like  this.  Why  not  have 
an  open  meeting  once  a  month  for  such  pur- 
poses—  a  meeting  called  from  all  the  pulpits, 
and  open  to  all  ?  " 

"  Don't ! "  cried  Dr.  Sampson,  amid  the 
laughter  of  the  company.  "  The  cranks  and 
blatherskites  of  all  the  churches  would  be  there 
in  force,  and  the  knowledge  that  they  would  be 
there  would  keep  all  the  sensible  folks  away." 

"  I  surrender !  "  said  the  Universalist  pastor, 
good-naturedly.  "  You  know,  brethren,  that 
my  experience  in  union  meetings  is  somewhat 
limited." 

"  Well,"  said  the  Methodist  minister,  after  a 
short  pause,  "  the  plan  seems  to  meet  with  gen- 
eral favor,  and  in  order  to  test  the  sense  of  this 

meeting,  I  move  you,  sir, no,  I  beg  pardon  — 

I  take  it  all  back;  go  ahead,  Mr.  Franklin." 

And  the  parson  sat  down,  laughing  with  the 
rest  at  his  own  blunder. 

"  The  shape  in  which  the  matter  lies,"  said  the 
banker,  "  is  just  this  :  Here  are  the  pastors  of 


28  THE  CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

the  eight  churches  named  in  the  constitution,  and 
three  laymen  from  each  of  them,  with  one  vacancy 
in  the  lay  delegation  from  the  Baptist  Church, 
and  one  from  the  Episcopal  Church.  I  propose 
that,  if  there  is  no  objection,  the  persons  here 
present  constitute  The  Christian  League  Club  of 
New  Albion.  There  will  be  two  vacancies,  and 
these  may  be  filled  according  to  the  constitution. 
I  will  wait  a  few  moments  for  objections." 

No  voices  were  heard,  and  Mr.  Franklin  pro- 
ceeded:  "The consent  is  complete,  and  we  may 
regard  the  club  as  organized.  It  is,  gentlemen, 
a  most  gratifying  result.  What  will  be  accom- 
plished we  will  not  venture  to  predict;  but  I 
have  faith  enough  in  the  common  sense  and 
Christian  spirit  of  this  body  of  men  to  believe 
that  they  can  talk  frankly  and  earnestly  about 
Christian  work  in  this  town  without  getting  into 
any  disputes,  and  that  they  will  be  ready  to  put 
the  interests  of  virtue  and  religion  above  their 
private  preferences  or  their  sectarian  prejudices. 
If  such  a  temper  and  purpose  shall  rule  in  all 
our  meetings,  I  am  sure  that  public  opinion  Avill 
be  wisely  directed,  and  that  substantial  results 
will  follow." 

All  formalities  were  now  at  an  end,  and  pro- 
miscuous conversation  followed.  Mr.  Franklin 
was  too  wise  to  introduce  any  questions  for  dis- 
cussion at  this  meeting;  he  preferred  to  let 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  2Q 

the    members  of  the    club  work    up  their  own 
questions. 

The  talk  that  ensued  was  full  of  suggestions ; 
these  energetic,  clear-headed  business  men  took 
hold  of  the  problem  put  into  their  hands  with 
the  grip  of  their  trained  faculty,  and  it  did  not 
take  them  long  to  find  out  that  the  business  of 
doing  good  in  their  community  had  been  carried 
on  in  a  negligent,  perverse,  and  wasteful  fashion, 
and  that  there  was  plenty  of  room  for  the  intro- 
duction of  better  methods.  One  thing  and  an- 
other were  spoken  of  as  possible  and  desirable, 
by  the  various  groups  that  were  exercising  their 
wits  upon  the  problem,  and  difference  of  opinion 
began  to  be  developed  at  once  ;  but  these  differ- 
ences engendered  no  heat.  The  need  of  perfect 
good  nature  was  evident,  at  once,  to  all  who  had 
any  points  to  carry.  Inasmuch  as  nothing  could 
be  done  in  this  club  without  unanimous  consent, 
it  would  never  do  to  irritate  anybody.  Fair  con- 
sideration, and  entire  recognition  of  the  right  of 
others  to  hold  contrary  opinions,  must  be  the 
basis  of  all  these  conferences.  This  was  a  war- 
fare in  which  nothing  but  sweet  reasonableness 
could  win. 

At  ten  o'clock  the  company  dispersed,  having 
accepted  Dr.  Sampson's  invitation  to  hold  the 
next  meeting  at  his  house,  on  the  first  Monday 
evening  in  February. 


IV. 


HOW  to  reach  and  help  the  churchless  classes 
was  the  question  that  received  the  most 
attention  in  the  free  talk  of  the  members  of  the 
Christian  League  Club  at  their  first  meeting  ;  the 
topic  had  been  upon  the  minds  of  many  of  them 
during  the  interval,  and  it  was  sure  to  be  promi- 
nent among  the  themes  of  the  second  confer- 
ence. 

"  It  is  plain,"  said  Deacon  Squires,  after  the 
company  had  settled  down  to  business  in  the 
cozy  parlors  of  Doctor  Sampson,  "  that  there  are 
large  numbers  of  persons  in  this  community 
wholly  outside  of  all  religious  influences.  Those 
who  attend  our  churches  every  Sunday  consti- 
tute a  small  part  of  our  population.  Sunday  be- 
fore last  was  a  beautiful  winter's  day,  and  the 
congregations  were,  as  I  have  been  told,  tin 
usually  large  in  all  the  churches.  On  that  day, 
to  satisfy  myself,  I  had  a  careful  count  made  of 
all  the  congregations,  and  here  are  the  figures. 
I  will  not  read  them,  but  the  total  number  of 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE.  ^\ 

persons  present  on  that  Sunday  morning  was  two 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty-nine.  Out 
of  a  population  of  twelve  thousand,  this  is  not 
a  good  showing.  Something  must  be  done,  or 
we  shall  lapse  into  heathenism." 

"  That  showing,"  replied  the  chairman,  "  is 
rather  discouraging  on  the  face  of  it;  but  let  us 
see  if  it  will  not  look  better  after  a  little  exam- 
ination. Out  of  the  twelve  thousand  people 
living  in  this  town,  at  least  three  thousand  are 
Roman  Catholics.  The  great  majority  of  these 
attend  church.  This  leaves  nine  thousand  to 
divide  among  the  Protestant  churches.  Will 
Deacon  Squires  kindly  tell  us  how  many  there 
were  in  the  congregation  at  the  Baptist  Church, 
Sunday  before  last  ?  I  do  not  care  to  number 
my  neighbors,  but  I  am  willing  to  have  my  own 
flock  counted." 

"  Five  hundred  and  seventy-six,"  answered 
the  Deacon. 

"  That  is  about  what  I  had  supposed,"  said 
the  chairman.  "  Now,  our  Sunday-school  in  the 
afternoon  numbers  fully  four  hundred,  and  at 
least  half  of  these  were  not  at  the  morning  ser- 
vice. At  the  evening  meeting  I  am  sure  that 
we  often  have  at  least  a  hundred  who  have  not 
attended  either  of  the  other  services.  During 
that  Sunday  we  must,  therefore,  have  had  in  our 
church  nearly  nine  hundred  different. persons  be- 


32  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

longing  to  our  parish,  besides  strangers  and  so- 
journers.  You  would  need  to  add  fifty,  and,  I 
think,  in  many  cases,  sixty  per  cent,  to  the  morn- 
ing congregation,  to  get  the  number  of  persons 
reached  by  the  churches  on  any  given  Sunday." 

"  And  that,"  said  Mr.  Franklin,  "  would  bring 
the  figures  up  to  between  four  and  five  thousand 
actually  present  in  our  Protestant  churches  on  a 
pleasant  Sunday." 

"  Yes,  that  is  about  what  I  calculated  —  nearly 
half  of  all  the  Protestants  in  town  get  to  church 
at  least  once  on  a  fair  day." 

"  But  that,"  said  Deacon  Jones,  is  not  a  good 
story  to  tell.  More  than  half  of  all  the  Protest- 
ants in  town  stay  away  from  church  every  fair 
Sunday.  Put  it  that  way,  and  how  does  it 
sound  ?" 

"  But  that,"  continued  Dr.  Sampson,  "needs 
further  explanation.  A  large  share  of  all  these 
Protestants  are  unable  to  attend  church  on  any 
given  Sunday.  Add  together  all  the  children  un- 
der four  years  old,  the  aged  and  infirm,  the  sick, 
and  all  those  who  must  stay  at  home  to  attend 
upon  these,  and  you  will  have,  according  to 
some  careful  English  estimates,  about  forty  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  Suppose,  now,  that 
forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  people  actually  attend 
church,  and  that  forty  per  cent,  are  providen- 
tially kept  away  :  you  have  not  more  than  fifteen 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


33 


per  cent,  of  the  population  who  are,  both  by 
choice  and  by  habit,  neglecters ;  and  the  careful 
canvass  that  our  church  has  made  of  a  section 
of  the  town  that  is  fairly  representative  of  the 
whole,  leads  me  to  the  same  conclusion.  I  do 
not  believe  that  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  per 
cent,  of  our  people  can  be  counted  among  those 
who  are  outside  of  all  the  churches.  I  happen  to 
know,  for  example,  how  many  souls  are  in  my 
parish.  I  have  tried  to  get  the  names  of  all,  old 
and  young,  who  are  under  my  pastoral  care  — 
all  the  members  of  all  the  households  connected 
with  my  church  and  Sunday-school,  and  not  con- 
nected with  any  other  church,  and  the  list  num- 
bers about  fourteen  hundred  names.  Many  of 
these  are  persons  who  do  not  often  attend  Sun- 
day service  —  they  are  semi-attached  parishion- 
ers ;  but  if  you  should  ask  them  where  they 
go  to  church,  they  would  mention  the  Baptist 
Church.  They  consider  me  their  pastor,  and 
would  send  for  me  if  they  needed  the  services 
of  a  clergyman.  So  that  the  actual  members  of 
my  parish  who  are  cared  for,  in  some  sort,  by 
my  church,  number  considerably  more  than 
twice  as  many  as  my  congregation  number  on  a 
pleasant  Sunday  morning.  If  this  is  true  of  all 
the  other  churches,  and  it  undoubtedly  is,  then 
there  must  be  in  the  neighborhood  of  seven 
thousand  persons  connected  more  or  less  closely 
3 


34  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

with  our  Protestant  parishes.  At  the  outside, 
I  do  not  think  there  can  be  more  than  two  thou- 
sand persons  in  this  town  who  arc  not,  in  some 
imperfect  way,  cared  for  by  our  churches,  either 
Catholic  or  Protestant." 

"  That  puts  a  different  face  upon  the  ques- 
tion," said  Deacon  Squires,  "  and  I  am  glad  to 
have  the  subject  so  carefully  analyzed.  But 
two  thousand  heathen  are  too  many." 

"  Most  true,"  cried  Dr.  Sampson,  "  and  it  is  a 
shame  to  our  churches  that  there  are  so  many. 
It  is  well  to  have  distinct  ideas  of  the  work  we 
are  trying  to  do,  and  not  to  exaggerate  its  mag- 
nitude, lest  we  be  discouraged.  This  whole  sub- 
ject has  been  greatly  obscured  by  a  number  of 
shallow  alarmists,  who  have  been  croaking  about 
the  desertion  of  the  churches,  and  who  have 
wholly  failed  to  comprehend  the  real  facts.  But 
if  the  real  facts  are  not  half  so  black  as  they 
have  been  painted,  they  are  somber  enough,  and 
it  is  high  time  that  we  were  grappling  with  the 
problem  they  present." 

"  What  to  do  about  it  is  the  question,"  said 
Mr.  Franklin. 

"  Why  not  send  for  an  evangelist?"  modestly 
queried  Elder  Bates,  of  the  Advent  Church. 
"  Brother  Moody  is  not  to  be  had  this  winter ; 
but  we  might  get  Brother  Weeks.  He  is  said  to 
be  a  powerful  preacher — abler  even  than  Moody  ; 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  35 

and  he  might  succeed  in  drawing  in  some  of 
these  neglecters." 

"  Drawing  them  into  what  ? "  asked  Mr. 
Franklin. 

"Why,  into  his  meetings.  I  suppose  that 
they  would  be  held  in  the  Town  Hall,  and  many 
would  be  drawn  in  who  do  not  attend  the 
churches." 

"  Doubtless ;  and  they  would  attend  the 
churches  no  more  after  Mr.  Weeks  had  gone 
away  than  they  did  before.  A  few  would  join 
the  churches,  but  the  proclamation  thus  made  of 
the  inadequacy  of  the  churches  to  supply  the 
religious  wants  of  the  community  would  do  these 
outsiders,  as  a  class,  an  amount  of  harm  for 
which  these  small  gains  would  poorly  compen- 
sate. Building  a  fire  in  the  Town  Hall  is  a  poor 
way  of  warming  the  churches." 

Mr.  Franklin  spoke  very  quietly,  but  with 
the  earnestness  of  strong  conviction,  and  the 
only  response  was  a  fervent  "  Amen "  from 
Dr.  Phelps.  It  was  plain  that  the  project  was 
not  popular,  and  good  Elder  Bates  forebore  to 
press  it. 

"  Couldn't  we  do  something  with  mission 
Sunday-schools  ?  "  suggested  one  of  the  Metho- 
dist laymen. 

"Where  would  you  put  them?"  asked  Mr. 
Strong. 


2 6  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know  ;  good  places  might  be 
found,  I  should  think." 

"  Down  on  the  corner  of  King  and  Patterson 
streets  is  a  good  location,"  said  Mr.  Thorpe. 

"That  is  about  fifty  rods  from  the  Free  Bap- 
tist Church,"  answered  Mr.  Strong.  "  Do  you 
want  any  help  down  that  way,  Peters  ?  " 

"  I  fear,"  said  the  genial  parson,  "  that  we  are 
not  doing  all  the  work  we  ought  to  do;  but 
there  is  still  a  little  room  left  in  our  vestry  for 
new  scholars." 

"  Beg  your  pardon,  Peters,"  cried  the  Metho- 
dist. "  I  didn't  intend  to  poach  on  your  pre- 
serves ;  I  was  only  thinking  of  doing  good  on 
general  principles." 

"  We  must  be  careful  to  make  our  general 
principles  fit  the  special  cases  with  which  we 
have  to  deal,"  said  Dr.  Sampson. 

"  I  am  unable,"  said  Mr.  Strong,  "  to  think  of 
any  neighborhood  in  which  a  mission  school 
could  be  started  that  is  not  now  within  reach  of 
some  existing  church.  Around  the  new  brass- 
works  now  building,  in  the  south  part  of  the 
town,  a  settlement  is  likely  to  spring  up  that  will 
soon  need  to  be  provided  for ;  at  present,  every 
locality  is  well  furnished  with  churches." 

"  But,"  said  Deacon  Squires,  "  people  will  often 
attend  mission  chapels  who  would  not  attend 
churches." 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  37 

"  The  first  thing  to  do  in  such  a  case,"  replied 
Mr.  Strong,  with  emphasis,  "is  to  convert  or  kill 
the  churches  of  which  this  is  true.  A  church 
into  which  poor  people  cannot  be  induced  to  go 
ought  to  be  born  again  or  blotted  out.  The 
church  whose  methods  of  administration  and 
whose  social  atmosphere  are  such  as  to  dis- 
courage the  attendance  of  the  poor,  is  driving 
Christ  from  its  door.  Is  not  this  His  own  word, 
'  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of 
these,  ye  did  it  unto  me  ?  '  It  is  entirely  possible 
to  create  and  maintain  in  our  churches  a  spirit 
and  a  way  of  Avorking  that  shall  make  the  poor- 
est people  feel  perfectly  at  home  in  them.  The 
church  in  which  these  are  not  found  needs  a 
missionary  as  much  as  the  Patagonians  do.  It 
has  not  yet  learned  the  alphabet  of  Christianity." 

"  You  wax  warm,  Brother  Strong,"  cried  Dr. 
Sampson.  "  Haven't  you  got  a  missionary  or 
two  up  at  the  Second  Church  that  you  can 
send  to  some  of  your  neighbors  ?  " 

"  Not  one.  We  need  them  all,"  answered  the 
parson,  laughing.  "  But  I  suspect  that  I  have 
already  scattered  abroad  a  few,  to  whom  my 
doctrine  on  this  subject  was  too  hpt,  and  who 
have  gone  forth  preaching  quite  another  gospel. 
Whatever  help  you  can  get  out  of  them  you 
are  welcome  to.  Good  riddance  to  them,  I 
say.  One  or  two  of  them  have  taken  refuge 


38  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

with  you,  Strickland.  I  hope  you  will  convert 
them." 

"  I'll  do  my  best  to  convert  them,  at  any  rate," 
said  the  rector,  warmly.  "  If  they  expected  to 
hear  a  softer  doctrine  on  this  subject  at  St. 
Mark's,  they  have  probably  found  out  their 
mistake  by  this  time.  Our  practice  is  not  quite 
up  to  our  theories  ;  but  I  am  happy  to  say  that 
the  spirit  of  a  genuine  Christian  democracy  is 
growing  among  our  ecclesiastical  aristocrats. 
The  churches  are  not  few  in  which  the  poor  are 
coddled  or  patronized ;  those  in  which  they  are 
respected  and  frankly  put  upon  the  same  level 
of  consideration  and  responsibility  with  the  rich 
and  well-to-do  are  not  yet  a  multitude.  This  is 
our  standard,  and,  although  we  have  not  reached 
it,  we  shall  not  lower  it,  please  God,  under  the 
present  administration." 

"This  discourse  is  edifying,"  said  Mr.  Peters. 
"  Go  right  on,  brethren.  It  is  good  to  hear  such 
testimony  from  the  pastors  of  such  churches." 

"  We  sometimes  hear  of  '  a  saying  hard  to 
shape  in  act,'  "  said  Dr.  Phelps,  "  and  this  is  one 
of  them.  The  theory  is  sound  ;  but  whenever 
thought  is  wedded  to  fact  there  will  be  a  bridal 
dawn  of  grumbling,  if  nothing  worse,  in  some 
of  our  congregations." 

"The  more  shame  to  us,"  cried  Mr.  Strong, 
"  if  we  have  suffered  our  people  to  forget  the 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  39 

true  function  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  have 
allowed  the  fellowship  of  the  Spirit  to  degenerate 
into  a  chartered  snobbery." 

"But,"  said  Mr.  Thorpe,  "is  it  not  wiser  to 
recognize  existing  facts  and  adapt  our  methods 
to  them  ?  It  is  certainly  a  fact  that  the  poor 
people  generally  think  they  are  not  wanted  in 
the  churches.  They  greatly  exaggerate  this 
inhospitality ;  in  many  of  our  churches  they 
would  find  a  cordial  welcome ;  but  they  think 
that  the  place  where  the  rich  and  the  stylish 
people  worship  is  not  the  place  for  them.  Many 
of  those  who  stay  away  from  the  churches  could 
be  gathered  into  mission  chapels.  Is  it  not 
better  to  reach  them  in  this  way  than  fail  alto- 
gether to  reach  them  ?  " 

"I  think  not,"  was  the  answer.  "The  one 
injurious  and  fatal  fact  of  our  present  church 
work  is  the  barrier  between  the  churches  and 
the  poorest  classes.  The  first  thing  for  us  to  do 
is  to  demolish  this  barrier.  The  impression  is 
abroad  among  the  poor  that  they  are  not  wanted 
in  the  churches.  This  impression  is  either  correct 
or  incorrect.  If  it  is  correct,  then  there  is  no 
missionary  work,  for  us  who  are  pastors,  half  so 
urgent  as  the  conversion  of  our  congregations  to 
Christianity.  If  it  is  incorrect,  we  are  still  guilty 
before  God  in  that  we  have  allowed  such  an 
impression  to  go  abroad ;  and  we  are  bound  to 


4Q  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

address  ourselves,  at  once  and  with  all  diligence, 
to  the  business  of  convincing  the  poor  people  that 
they  are  wanted,  and  will  be  made  welcome,  in 
the  churches.  But  every  mission  chapel  planted 
in  the  neighborhood  of  a  church,  and  intended 
for  the  poor,  is  an  ostentatious  proclamation  to 
the  poor  that  they  are  right  in  their  impression ; 
that  we  freely  consent  to  the  separation  of  the 
rich  from  the  poor  in  worship ;  that  we  ap- 
prove of  the  religion  that  is  founded  upon  caste. 
To  that  proclamation  I  will  never  put  my  sig- 
nature. The  time  has  come  when  judgment 
should  begin  at  the  house  of  God,  and  when 
the  paganism  that  masquerades  in  our  stylish 
churches,  in  the  guise  of  Christianity,  should 
be  stripped  of  its  disguises  and  banished  from 
our  altars." 

Mr.  Strong  had  risen  from  his  seat,  and  his 
black  eyes  were  blazing  with  the  intensity  of  his 
convictions,  as  he  finished  his  speech.  A  round 
of  applause  greeted  his  peroration.  It  was  clear 
that  no  progress  could  be  made  by  the  club  in 
the  erection  of  mission  chapels  until  some  popu- 
lation not  accessible  to  the  churches  could  be 
found. 

"Well,  gentlemen,"  said  the  genial  chairman, 
"  the  question  is  before  you.  What  will  you  do 
for  the  churchless  classes, — be  they  few  or  many, 
rich  or  poor  ?  " 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  4! 

"  Would  it  not  be  wise,"  asked  Mr.  Henderson, 
"  to  have  the  town  divided  into  geographical 
districts,  as  many  as  there  are  churches,  each  of 
which  should  be  assigned  to  a  church  for  its 
special  field  ?  It  would  not  be  possible  to  have 
each  church  stand  in  the  center  of  its  field,  for 
some  of  our  churches  are  too  near  neighbors ; 
but  we  might  come  as  near  to  that  as  possible.  If 
every  part  of  the  town  was  thus  under  the  care 
of  some  church  responsible  for  its  evangelization, 
our  work  would  be  well  begun.  Each  church 
could  do  the  work  in  its  own  district  in  its  own 
way." 

"That  is  a  sensible  suggestion,"  said  Mr. 
Franklin.  "  I  move  " 

"  Order!  "  cried  the  Methodist  parson.  "  'Phy- 
sician, heal  thyself! ' ' 

"  Peccavi !"  exclaimed  the  banker.  "The  for- 
ensic habit  survives,  as  you  see,  in  the  millen- 
nium of  the  Christian  League.  But  we  have  one 
resource.  A  committee  can  be  appointed  by 
unanimous  consent.  I  trust  that  such  consent 
will  be  given  to  the  appointment  by  our  chair- 
man of  a  committee  of  three,  who  shall  carefully 
divide  the  town  into  districts,  assigning  one  to 
each  church ;  and  that  this  committee  may 
report  at  the  next  meeting." 

To  this  proposition  no  objection  was  made, 
and  the  chairman  at  once  named  as  the  com- 


4 2  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

mittee  Mr.  Franklin,  Mr.  Henderson,  and  Deacon 
Squires. 

The  work  of  the  committee  was  done  before 
the  next  meeting.  The  population  of  New 
Albion  was  distributed,  as  it  is  in  most  similar 
towns,  in  such  a  way  that  it  was  possible,  in  the 
words  of  Deacon  Squires,  to  give  each  church 
"a  streak  of  lean  and  a  streak  of  fat," — to 
assign  to  each  a  district  in  which  there  were 
sections  inhabited  by  the  poor,  as  well  as  those 
inhabited  by  the  well-to-do.  When  the  assign- 
ment was  made,  it  was  at  once  reported  by  the 
pastors  to  the  churches.  The  knowledge  that  a 
systematic  and  concerted  effort  was  to  be  made 
to  reach  all  classes  in  the  community  stimulated 
each  church  to  do  its  own  part  of  the  work 
promptly  and  thoroughly.  So  it  came  about 
that,  before  the  winter  was  over,  the  whole  town 
had  been  covered  by  the  canvassers,  and  no 
household  was  left  in  ignorance  of  the  fact  that 
a  place  and  a  welcome  were  waiting  for  if.  in  one 
of  the  churches. 

Some  of  the  canvassers  carried  with  them 
cards,  on  which  were  printed  the  hours  of  their 
various  services.  The  spirit  of  good-will  and 
cooperation  was  such  that  the  visitors  generally 
sought  to  gratify  the  denominational  preferences 
of  those  on  whom  they  called.  If  a  Congrega- 
tional visitor  found  a  family  with  Baptist  pro- 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  ^ 

divides,  he  sent  the  address  of  this  family  to  the 
nearest  Baptist  visitor.  In  this  way  the  poor 
people  obtained  a  strong  impression  of  the  unity 
of  the  churches.  It  became  evident  that  this 
enterprise  was  not  undertaken  for  the  aggran- 
dizement of  any  sect  or  of  any  local  church,  but 
rather  for  the  sake  of  carrying  the  gospel  greet- 
ing and  invitation  to  all  the  destitute.  Many 
cases  of  sickness  and  want  were  also  discovered 
by  the  visitors,  and  the  practical  charities  of  the 
churches  began  to  be  developed  in  an  effective 
way.  A  colporteur  of  the  Bible  Society  appeared 
upon  the  scene  as  the  work  was  beginning,  him- 
self proposing  to  canvass  the  town  in  the  interest 
of  his  society  ;  but  he  was  easily  persuaded  to 
relinquish  the  work  into  the  hands  of  the  local 
visitors. 

"Well,"  said  the  parson  to  the  banker,  as 
they  drove  slowly  along  a  forest  road,  on  a 
bright  May  afternoon,  drinking  in  the  aromatic 
breath  of  the  newly  opened  leaves,  "the  weather 
has  considerably  moderated  since  that  day,  last 
January,  when  we  were  passing  this  spot,  and 
when  you  suggested  the  formation  of  our  club." 

"  Yes,  and  I  think  the  ecclesiastical  climate 
has  softened  a  little." 

"  Not  a  little.  The  outcome  has  been  won- 
derful. The  results  are  far  greater  than  I  ever 
dreamed  of.  There  is  really  a  great  deal  of  good- 


44  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE. 

will  among  men,  if  it  can  only  get  a  chance  to 
express  itself." 

"  We  will  give  it  plenty  of  chances.  This 
work  is  only  fairly  begun.  There  is  abundance 
of  work  to  do  better  than  any  we  yet  have  done. 
And  we  shall  do  it.  The  Christians  of  New 
Albion  have  got  a  taste  of  the  luxury  of  Chris- 
tian cooperation,  and  they  will  never  go  back 
to  the  beggarly  elements  of  a  selfish  ecclesias- 
"ticism." 


V. 


BEFORE  the  end  of  the  summer  vacation,  the 
brass-works  at  New  Albion  were  in  opera- 
tion, and  a  large  colony  of  mechanics  had  occu- 
pied the  tenement  houses  of  the  "  Patch"  above 
the  mill.  For  the  use  of  this  new  community,  the 
town  had  provided  a  school- house  ;  a  neat  hall 
above  the  company's  store  gave  room  for  reli- 
gious services.  The  mill  was  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  nearest  church,  and  something  must  be 
done  to  supply  the  religious  wants  of  the  new 
community.  The  question  arose  at  the  Septem- 
ber meeting  of  the  Christian  League  Club. 

"What  is  to  be  done  for  the  brass- workers  ?" 
asked  Mr.  Strong. 

"  I  believe,"  answered  Mr.  Thorpe,  blushing  a 
little,  "  that  our  people  have  already  taken  steps 
toward  organizing  a  church  in  that  neighbor- 
hood." 

"Indeed!"  exclaimed  Dr.  Sampson.  "The 
Baptists  have  also  consulted  me  about  services 
there,  but  I  declined  to  express  any  opinion 


^(5  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

until  some  conference  had  been  held  upon  the 
matter  by  this  club." 

"  I  want  it  understood,"  answered  Mr.  Thorpe, 
"  that  I  have  done  nothing  about  it.  One  of  the 
overseers  at  the  mill  is  a  zealous  Methodist,  and 
he  has  found  out  that  quite  a  number  of  the 
hands  belong  to  our  connection.  The  presiding 
elder  was  down  there  the  other  day,  and  con- 
ferred with  him  about  it.  But  I  felt  as  the  Doc- 
tor did,  that  it  would  hardly  be  right  for  me  to 
help  in  the  enterprise  until  we  had  talked  it  over 
here." 

"  Would  it  not  be  well,"  asked  Mr.  Strong, 
"  to  call  a  public  meeting  in  the  hall  at  the 
brass-works,  of  all  persons  who  desire  the  or- 
ganization of  a  religious  society,  and  let  them 
determine  for  themselves  what  kind  of  an  organ- 
ization they  will  have?" 

"That  is  fair,"  was  the  verdict  of  several 
voices. 

"  Let  us  have  a  committee  of  seven, —  one 
from  each  of  the  denominations  represented  in 
this  club, —  who  shall  call  this  preliminary  meet- 
ing, and  be  present  to  take  charge  of  its  delib- 
erations." 

This  was  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Peters. 

"  Good  !  "  was  the  general  response. 

"  And  now,"  said  Mr.  Franklin,  "  I  hope 
nobody  will  object  to  my  proposition,  which  is 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  j7 

that  this  committee  consist  of  the  pastors  of 
these  churches,  omitting  the  pastor  of  the  Sec- 
ond Church.  The  Congregationalists  should 
not  outnumber  the  others  on  the  committee  j 
and  I  am  sure  that  the  presence  of  these  seven 
pastors  at  a  meeting  of  this  character  will  be  to 
the  brass-workers  an  impressive  object-lesson  in 
Christian  unity." 

"Mr.  Franklin  is  exactly  right,"  said  Mr. 
Strong.  "  My  absence  will  not  be  misinter- 
preted, and  Dr.  Phelps  is  competent  to  repre- 
sent the  Congregationalists." 

The  proposition  was  therefore  unanimously 
agreed  to,  and  a  handbill,  signed  with  the  names 
of  the  seven  pastors,  called  the  people  of  the 
brass-works  together  on  the  next  Sunday  after- 
noon. The  hall  was  filled  with  an  interested 
company.  Dr.  Phelps,  as  the  senior  pastor, 
took  the  chair. 

"We  have  called  you  together,"  he  said  in 
his  brief  opening  speech,  "because  we  assumed 
that  there  must  be,  among  the  six  or  seven 
hundred  people  of  this  new  settlement,  a  large 
number  who  would  desire  some  sort  of  religious 
organization,  and  because  we,  the  pastors  of  the 
Protestant  churches  in  New  Albion,  desired  to 
assist  you  if  we  could  in  forming  one.  I  know 
that  I  speak  for  all  of  my  brethren  when  I  say 
that  none  of  us  cares  so  much  to  have  a  church 


48  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

of  his  own  particular  sort  formed  here,  as  to 
have  the  people  here  happy  in  their  church 
relations.  We  have  learned,  in  New  Albion,  to 
dwell  together  in  unity,  and  we  want  you  to  live 
in  the  same  way.  Whatever  kind  of  church  is 
formed  here,  if  it  be  only  a  church  that  owns 
and  follows  Jesus  Christ,  it  will  receive  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship  from  every  one  of  our 
churches.  It  is  evident  that  there  ought  not  to 
be  more  than  one  church  in  this  small  com- 
munity ;  we  have  come  to  assist  you  in  deciding 
what  form  that  organization  shall  take.  I  under- 
stand that  some  steps  have  been  taken  toward 
forming  a  Methodist  church  here.  We  shall 
have  no  objection  whatever  if  the  society  takes 
that  form,  if  that  is  the  wish  of  the  community ; 
we  only  care  that  you  should  be  heartily  agreed 
among  yourselves,  and  work  together  harmoni- 
ously." 

Three  or  four  of  the  other  pastors  followed 
with  short  speeches,  each  of  whom  testified, 
with  equal  clearness,  to  the  desire  of  all  for 
unity  and  cooperation  among  the  Christians  at 
the  brass-works. 

"  And  now,"  said  Dr.  Phelps,  "  we  propose 
to  submit  this  matter  to  the  decision  of  those 
interested.  Those  who  wish  to  have  a  religious 
society  organized  in  this  place,  and  who  will 
pledge  themselves  to  assist  in  supporting  it, 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


49 


either  by  contributions,  by  Christian  work,  or 
by  attendance  upon  its  services,  will  please 
rise." 

About  fifty  men  and  women  stood  up. 

"  Very  good !  Now,  for  convenience,  will 
those  who  have  thus  pledged  themselves  occupy 
the  seats  in  the  right-hand  corner  of  the  hall." 

The  audience,  like  most  audiences,  v/as  a  little 
reluctant  to  make  this  change  of  seats,  but  it  was 
at  length  accomplished,  and  the  corner  was  occu- 
pied by  a  respectable-looking  company,  of  which 
one-third  were  men. 

"We  shall  now,"  said  Dr.  Phelps,  "distribute 
among  you  slips  of  paper,  on  which  you  are 
requested  to  write  the  name  of  the  denomination 
in  accordance  with  whose  rules  you  wish  this 
society  to  be  organized.  If  you  want  a  Method- 
ist church,  write  'Methodist';  express  your  pref- 
erence on  your  ballots." 

"  If  you  please,  sir,"  said  a  stout,  ruddy-faced 
young  Englishman,  standing  up  in  the  right- 
hand  corner,  "  I  have  just  come  over  from  the 
old  country,  and  I  know  but  little  about  your 
churches  here ;  in  England  I  went  to  chapel ; 
but  I  like  what  I  have  heard  this  afternoon,  and 
I  wish  that  the  new  church  might  be  the  same 
kind  that  these  gentlemen  belongs  to  that  has 
come  down  here  to  help  us  organize,  if  you  will 
tell  me  the  name  of  it." 
4 


5O  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

There  was  a  little  laugh  ;  but  the  Englishman 
was  unaware  of  his  blunder,  and  he  kept  the 
floor,  waiting  to  be  answered. 

"What  gentlemen  do  you  refer  to?"  asked 
the  Doctor,  blandly. 

"The  seven  gentlemen  on  the  platform,"  was 
the  answer. 

"  The  church  to  which  we  all  belong,"  replied 
Dr.  Phelps,  soberly,  "is  the  Church  of  Christ." 

"Thank  you,  sir,"  said  the  Englishman,  taking 
his  seat;  "  I  vote  for  the  Church  of  Christ." 

To  some  of  the  thorough-going  denomination- 
alists  this  seemed  a  good  joke  ;  but  the  English- 
man's positive  decision  served  for  wisdom  to 
several  of  the  uninstructed,  while  many  others, 
perceiving  the  difficulty  of  agreeing  upon  any 
existing  sect,  took  the  cue  and  wrote  his  vote 
upon  their  ballots.  When  the  slips  were  col- 
lected, there  were  ten  Methodist  ballots,  six 
Baptist,  three  Congregational,  one  Episcopalian, 
one  Presbyterian,  one  Lutheran,  one  Universal- 
ist,  and  twenty-six  for  a  church  of  Christ. 

"  Your  decision  is  wise,"  said  the  venerable 
chairman,  "  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that  you 
will  have  the  hearty  sympathy  of  all  the  churches 
in  New  Albion.  In  many  places,  churches  of 
this  character  are  made  to  feel  that  they  have  no 
relation  to  any  religious  body,  and  their  isolation 
becomes  irksome  to  them ;  but  it  is  not  so  with 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  5  ! 

us ;  you  will  have  as  much  fellowship  with  the 
Congregationalists  as  if  you  were  a  Congrega- 
tional church,  and  as  many  friends  among  the 
Baptists  as  if  you  were  a  Baptist  church,  and  so 
with  all  the  rest.  As  our  youngest  sister,  we 
shall  all  have  a  care  for  you,  and  shall  be  ready 
to  lend  you  a  hand,  and  we  trust  that  the  time 
will  come  when  we  shall  be  proud  of  you." 

"  I  want  to  be  a  Methodist,"  said  Mr.  Thorpe, 
warmly,  "just  long  enough  to  shout  Amen  to  all 
that  the  Doctor  has  just  said.  I  love  my  own 
church,  but  I  love  Christ's  kingdom  more ;  and 
God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  I  ever  lift  my 
hand  to  divide  the  people  of  the  Lord  when  they 
ought  to  dwell  together  in  unity." 

At  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Sampson,  a  commit- 
tee of  three,  from  those  intending  membership, 
was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  code  of  rules  and  a 
form  of  government  for  the  new  church.  One 
of  the  members  of  the  committee  requested  that 
Dr.  Phelps  might  be  added,  but  the  Doctor  asked 
that  Mr.  Strong,  who  had  given  much  thought 
to  problems  of  this  nature,  should  be  put  in  his 
place,  and  this  was  done. 

The  organization  thus  effected  was  somewhat 
unique.  It  was  to  be  known  as  "  The  First 
Church  of  Christ  in  Cyprusville,"  that  being  the 
name  fastened  upon  this  innocent  suburb  by  the 
treasurer  of  the  corporation.  Its  only  symbol  of 


52  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

doctrine  was  the  Apostles'  Creed ;  its  form  of 
admission  was  extremely  simple ;  its  rules  of 
procedure  were  not  so  elaborate  as  to  invite  to 
litigation.  Besides  the  clerk  and  the  treasurer 
of  the  church,  there  was  a  board  of  four  wardens 
and  four  deaconesses,  to  supervise  the  religious 
and  charitable  work  of  the  church.  The  secular 
affairs  were  in  the  care  of  a  board  of  trustees.  A 
meeting  of  all  these  officers,  under  the  title  of  the 
"Official  Board,"  over  which  the  pastor  was  to 
preside,  was  to  be  held  once  a  month  for  con- 
sultation. All  important  business  must,  how- 
ever, be  referred  to  the  church.  The  weekly 
meeting,  previous  to  each  communion,  was  to  be 
called  the  "  covenant- meeting."  Baptism  was  to 
be  administered  to  adults  by  immersion  or  affu- 
sion, as  the  candidate  might  choose ;  as  to  infant 
baptism,  no  rule  was  made  against  it,  but  Mr. 
Strong  advised  that  parents  who  wished  their 
children  baptized  should  have  the  rite  performed 
at  their  homes,  thus  respecting  the  strongest 
scruple  of  the  Baptist  brethren.  In  case  the 
church  should  call  a  pastor  who  was  unwilling 
to  administer  this  ordinance,  the  pastors  of 
other  churches  in  the  city  would  cheerfully  serve 
them. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  new  church  was 
provided  with  a  pastor.  A  Methodist  clergy- 
man, the  Reverend  Richard  W.  Gardner,  a  man 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  53 

of  excellent  character,  who  had  been  "  located  " 
without  charge  in  New  Albion  on  account  of 
temporary  disability,  and  who  was  known  to  be 
somewhat  weary  of  itinerating,  was  easily  per- 
suaded to  enter  upon  this  work.  No  formal 
installation  was  deemed  necessary,  but  services 
of  recognition  were  held,  in  which  the  new 
church  with  its  pastor  was  heartily  received  into 
the  fellowship  of  all  the  churches.  The  next 
thing  in  order  was  the  introduction  of  the  pastor 
and  three  delegates  into  the  Christian  League. 
Most  "  Union  "  churches  are  either  left  out  in 
the  cold,  or  else  enjoy  a  disclaimed  and  surrep- 
titious fellowship  with  one  of  the  sects,  which 
exposes  them  to  the  suspicion  of  ail  the  other 
sects ;  but  this  one  stepped  at  once  into  a  warm 
place  already  waiting  for  it,  and  seemed  as  truly 
to  have  "  brought  love  "  with  it  as  a  new  baby 
does  when  it  comes  into  a  Christian  family. 


VI. 


SOON  after  the  organization  of  the  church 
at  Cyprusville,  an  episode  occurred  which 
tended  not  a  little  to  strengthen  the  bonds  of 
Christian  fraternity  in  New  Albion.  The  Metho- 
dist church  had  long  been  staggering  under  a  load 
of  debt.  Its  edifice,  built  in  the  flush  times  follow- 
ing the  war,  was  an  ambitious  piece  of  architect- 
ure,—  the  church  of  the  future,  beyond  a  doubt, 
since  it  was  much  larger  than  the  needs  of  its  con- 
gregation,— and  the  pews  were  still  vacant  which 
the  sanguine  builders  had  expected  to  see  occu- 
pied by  the  men  who  were  to  pay  off  the  mort- 
gages. Mr.  Thorpe  had  carried  this  debt  now 
for  two  years ;  it  had  been  the  burden  of  his 
days  and  the  nightmare  of  his  dreams.  At  length 
he  had  brought  his  congregation  to  the  point  of 
attacking  it.  He  had  made  several  anxious  pil- 
grimages to  rich  Methodists  in  neighboring  cities, 
but  found  small  encouragement ;  it  was  evident 
that  the  Methodists  in  New  Albion  must  shoulder 
their  own  load. 

54 


THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE.  55 

Accordingly,  the  first  Sunday  in  October  was 
devoted  to  a  carefully  planned  effort  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  debt.  Mr.  Thorpe  had  concluded 
to  dispense  with  the  services  of  a  "  finangelist," 
and  to  direct  his  own  forces.  There  was  to  be 
no  regular  service  in  the  church,  but  the  people 
were  invited  to  meet  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  fore- 
noon, and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  the  meeting 
would  not  adjourn,  Mr.  Thorpe  said,  until  the 
debt  was  paid.  A  collation  was  provided  in  the 
basement,  so  that  the  people  might  spend  the 
day  in  the  work. 

The  debt  amounted  to  thirty-two  thousand 
dollars,  and  when  the  meeting  opened  in  the 
morning  seventeen  thousand  dollars  were  at 
once  subscribed  —  this  amount  having  been  se- 
cured beforehand  by  private  conference  with  the 
abler  contributors.  This  excellent  start  awakened 
great  enthusiasm,  and,  for  a  time,  subscriptions 
came  in  rapidly ;  but  long  before  noon  the  limit 
of  the  people's  ability  seemed  to  have  been 
reached,  and  the  list  only  footed  up  about 
twenty-four  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Thorpe  kept 
his  forces  well  in  hand,  however,  and  showed  no 
signs  of  wavering.  Exhortations  and  appeals  were 
interposed  with  singing;  a  judicious  and  ener- 
getic committee  did  a  great  deal  of  personal  work 
with  individuals  ;  messengers  were  dispatched  to 
labor  with  absentees.  But  it  seemed  evident 


56  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

that  the  large  gifts  had  all  been  gathered  in,  and 
there  was  still  a  deficiency  of  more  than  seven 
thousand  dollars  that  the  small  subscriptions  yet 
to  be  obtained  would  by  no  means  supply. 

As  Mr.  Franklin  walked  home,  after  the  morn- 
ing service,  with  his  pastor,  they  passed  the  door 
of  the  Methodist  church. 

"  Let  us  look  in  a  moment,"  said  the  parson, 
"and  see  how  they  are  getting  on." 

They  sat  down  in  one  of  the  back  seats  and 
watched  the  proceedings.  From  Mr.  Thorpe's 
occasional  remarks  they  learned  the  situation  of 
affairs,  and  saw  that  the  case  was  probably  hope- 
less, though  the  resolute  leader  did  not  for  a  mo- 
ment assent  to  such  a  conclusion. 

As  they  walked  away,  Mr.  Franklin  said : 

"  Making  a  strong  fight,  aren't  they  ?" 

"Yes." 

"  But  they  will  not  take  the  fort." 

"  I  don't  know." 

"I  do ;  they've  got  to  the  sticking-point,  and 
they  will  not  get  past  it." 

"  Pity  ! "  said  Mr.  Strong,  sententiously. 

After  a  moment's  thought,  Mr.  Franklin 
added,  with  a  new  interest : 

"  Is  it  lawful  to  pull  your  fellow- creature  out 
of  a  pit  on  the  Sabbath  day  ?" 

"  I  should  say  so,  especially  when  he  is  trying 
to  get  out  himself." 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  57 

"  Lawful  to  hitch  up  your  horse  to  pull  him 
out?" 

"  Yes,"  laughed  the  minister. 

"  Well,  you  go  home  and  get  your  lunch,  and 
I'll  get  mine,  and  have  Major  put  into  the  buggy. 
Til  be  around  there  before  one  o'clock,  and  we'll 
see  what  we  can  do." 

"  All  right." 

It  was  not  long  before  the  good  white  horse 
came  at  a  week-day  pace  to  the  door  of  the 
parsonage,  and  the  friends  were  soon  whirling 
away. 

"  Now,  we've  got  to  be  swift,"  said  the  banker. 
"  My  first  thought  was  to  call  only  on  some  of 
our  own  people,  but  I  am  now  inclined  to  give 
some  of  the  rest  a  chance.  The  Episcopalians 
and  the  Free  Baptists  have  a  heavy  debt  of  their 
own ;  the  Adventists  are  not  able  to  help  much ; 
we  must  enlist  the  others.  Brinsmade  must  call 
on  the  First  Church  folks,  Ellsworth  on  the  Bap- 
tists, Thompson  on  the  Universalists,  you  and  I 
will  look  out  for  our  own." 

They  were  stopping  at  Mr.  Brinsmade's  door, 
and  the  master  of  the  house  answered  the  bell. 

"  We  have  set  out,"  said  Mr.  Franklin,  "  to 
give  the  Methodists  a  little  lift  in  paying  their 
church-debt.  Will  you  go  and  stand  in  the 
vestibule  of  your  church  and  waylay  as  many  as 
you  can  of  your  strongest  men  as  they  go  into 


58  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

the  afternoon  service,  and  get  subscriptions  from 
them  ?  Start  the  paper  yourself.  Then  ask  Dr. 
Phelps  to  take  a  collection  before  the  sermon,  for 
the  same  object.  Get  cash  subscriptions,  payable 
to-morrow  at  my  bank.  Report  the  amount  to 
me  at  Mr.  Strong's  house  by  four  o'clock  sharp. 
Will  you  do  it?" 

"What  a  steam-boat  you  are!"  said  Brins- 
made,  laughing. 

"Will  you  do  it?"  said  Franklin,  strenuously. 
"  No  time  for  nonsense,  old  fellow  !" 

"Yes,  I'll  do  it." 

"All  right.      Good-bye!" 

And  the  white  horse  was  soon  flying  down 
the  street. 

None  of  the  other  churches  had  afternoon  ser- 
vices, and  all  that  could  be  done  in  them  must 
be  done  by  personal  application  to  a  few  of  the 
more  prosperous  members.  But  Mr.  Franklin 
had  selected  the  right  man  as  canvasser  in  each 
society,  and  after  they  had  been  set  at  work, 
he  and  his  pastor  returned  to  their  own 
parish,  which  they  divided  between  them,  con- 
triving, before  four  o'clock,  to  see  a  good  pro- 
portion of  its  most  generous  members.  At  that 
hour,  they  all  met  at  the  parsonage,  as  by 
agreement,  bringing  with  them  a  much  larger 
sum  than  the  most  sanguine  of  them  had  hoped 
to  get. 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


59 


"Theycarne  down  handsomely,"  said  Brins- 
made.  "  Three  or  four  refused  to  give  anything  ; 
but  most  of  them  had  their  names  down  before 
they  knew  it.  It  dropped  on  them  so  sudden 
like  that  they  hadn't  time  to  hunt  up  excuses. 
The  old  doctor  warmed  up  to  the  business  beau- 
tifully, and  begged  like  a  professional.  I  didn't 
suppose  it  was  in  him.  They  brought  in  nearly 
four  hundred  dollars  in  the  boxes,  besides  all  I 
got  from  individuals." 

The  others  had  much  the  same  story  to  tell. 
Sympathy  with  the  Methodists  in  their  courage- 
ous effort  was  universal,  and  it  had  found  a  gen- 
erous expression. 

"  Now  each  one  of  you  sit  down  and  write  a 
short  letter,"  said  Mr.  Franklin,  "  explaining  that 
the  amount  you  have  collected  is  from  friends  in 
your  church,  naming  the  amount  and  stating 
where  it  may  be  called  for  to-morrow,  and  we'll 
go  over  at  once  and  send  the  letters  up  to 
Brother  Thorpe.  I  trust  he  is  holding  out  yet, 
but  it  must  be  pretty  tough  for  a  man  who 
doesn't  believe  in  the  perseverance  of  the  saints 
to  hang  on  to  such  a  poor  promise." 

It  was  about  half-past  four  when  Mr.  Franklin 
and  his  friends  entered  the  Methodist  church. 
The  back  seats  were  all  occupied,  so  they  stood 
in  the  space  behind  the  pews  and  looked  on. 
The  church  was  pretty  well  filled,  and  Mr 


6o  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Thorpe  was  still  keeping  up  a  lively  fire  of 
appeal  and  argument ;  but  there  were  no  re- 
sponses, and  it  was  plain  that  hope  had  departed 
from  most  of  the  solicitors. 

"Will  you  walk  forward  and  take  seats,  gen- 
tlemen ?"  said  one  of  them. 

"  No,  thank  you,"  answered  Mr.  Franklin. 
"We  are  only  lobby  members.  How  do  you 
get  on  ?" 

"Slowly." 

And  the  solicitor  shook  his  head  dolefully. 

"  How  much  have  you  got  ?" 

"  Only  a  little  over  twenty-five  thousand." 

"Why  don't  you  stop  where  you  are?" 

"Then. we  lose  everything.  The  greater  share 
of  the  heavy  subscriptions  are  conditional  upon 
the  raising  of  the  whole  debt." 

"Wont  your  subscribers  make  them  uncon- 
ditional ?" 

"  No.  We've  begged  them  to,  but  they  are 
obstinate." 

"Pity,  isn't  it?" 

"Yes,  sir.  It  will  be  a  hard  blow  if  we  fail 
now." 

The  discouraged  gentleman  walked  away.  Mr. 
Franklin's  air  had  been  so  indifferent  that  he 
had  not  ventured  to  ask  him  for  anything. 

"  Send  up  your  letter,  Brinsmade,"  whispered 
Franklin.  "  Get  that  small  boy  to  take  it  up." 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  (3! 

The  small  boy  toddled  up  the  aisle  and  handed 
the  envelope  to  Mr.  Thorpe,  who  tore  it  open 
eagerly. 

"  Hallelujah  !"  shouted  the  impetuous  Metho- 
dist. "  Brethren,  listen  to  this  :  'The  First  Con- 
gregational Church  of  New  Albion  sends  greeting 
to  the  First  Methodist  Church,  with  a  pledge  of 
sixteen  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars,  to  be 
paid  to-morrow  at  twelve  o'clock  noon  by  a  check 
upon  the  First  National  Bank.'  This  is  signed  in 
behalf  of  the  church  by  James  W.  Brinsmade." 

The  reading  of  the  letter  was  followed  by  a 
storm  of  cheers  and  all  the  usual  .Methodist 
responses,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  organ  struck 
up  the  Doxology,  and  the  whole  congregation 
rose  to  their  feet  and  sang  it  with  a  tremendous 
energy. 

"Will  Brother  Brinsmade  come  forward?" 
shouted  Mr.  Thorpe.  But  before  he  had  time 
to  insist  on  this  a  little  girl  was  mounting  the 
pulpit  with  another  envelope,  which  the  pastor 
received  with  trembling  hand.  The  noise  hushed 
in  a  moment.  This  letter  stated  that  five  hundred 
and  fifteen  dollars,  the  gift  of  a  few  friends  in 
the  Universalist  Church,  would  be  on  deposit 
the  next  day,  at  the  same  hour  and  the  same 
place.  Over  this  the  furore  was  redoubled,  one 
enthusiastic  brother  mounting  a  seat  and  calling 
for  "  the  second  verse  of  the  Doxology  ! " 


52  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

"  Better  not  protract  the  agony,"  said  Frank- 
lin to  Ellsworth.  "  Let  us  send  up  our  notes 
together." 

The  good  minister,  who  had  now  for  six  hours 
been  under  a  continuous  nervous  strain,  in  whose 
heart  confidence  had  given  way  to  anxiety  and 
anxiety  was  beginning  to  change  to  discourage- 
ment, was  so  completely  overcome  by  the  con- 
tents of  the  other  two  envelopes  that  he  sat 
down  in  his  chair  and  could  not  speak  for  a 
moment,  and  at  length  rose  and  half  sobbed  out : 

"  Two  more,  brethren.  One  from  friends  in 
the  Baptist  Church,  with  a  pledge  of  nine 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  and  one  from 
friends  in  the  Second  Congregational  Church, 
with  a  promise  of  eighteen  hundred  and  ten 
dollars.  God  bless  them,  every  one  ! " 

This  time  they  were  all  too  excited  to  sing, 
but  there  was  a  volley  of  amens  in  response  to  the 
last  ejaculation,  and  men  and  women  all  over  the 
house  were  laughing  and  crying  like  children. 

"  Give  us  the  footing  now,  Brother  Harrison," 
said  the  minister,  at  length,  to  the  treasurer,  who 
was  keeping  account  of  the  subscriptions. 

"  Thirty  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty-five 
dollars,"  was  the  answer. 

"  Less  than  two  thousand  dollars  more  are 
wanted,"  cried  Mr.  Thorpe.  "What  do  you  say 
to  that  ?  " 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  63 

"Two  hundred  dollars  more  for  me!"  was  the 
first  response  from  one  of  the  heaviest  subscrib- 
ers ;  and  then  the  supplementary  subscriptions, 
large  and  small,  came  pouring  in  for  ten  minutes, 
faster  than  the  treasurer  could  record  them.  As 
soon  as  there  was  a  short  pause,  he  summed  up 
the  amount  again,  and,  rising  to  his  feet,  said 
quietly  : 

"Thirty-two  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty 
dollars — four  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  for 
shrinkage  ! " 

The  scene  that  followed  can  only  be  imagined 
by  those  who  know  what  an  incubus  a  church- 
debt  is  to  a  devoted  congregation,  and  who  are 
also  familiar  with  the  ways  in  which  Methodists 
are  wont  to  express  their  feelings. 

"  I  perceive,"  said  Mr.  Thorpe,  rising  to  his 
feet  after  the  tempest  had  subsided,  "  that  all 
these  pledges  are  to  be  paid  to-morrow  at  noon 
at  the  First  National  Bank.  It  is  easy  to  guess 
who  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  this  business,  and  I 
see  him  now  standing  near  the  door." 

"  No  scenes  for  me,"  whispered  the  banker  to 
his  minister.  "  I'm  going.  Make  my  excuses." 
And  he  slipped  out  of  the  door  and  walked 
quickly  away. 

"  Mr.  Walter  Franklin  is  the  man,"  continued 
the  parson,  "  and  he  is  leaving  the  house  at  this 
moment;  will  not  some  one  bring  him  back?" 


64  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

But  that  was  a  vain  suggestion.  Mr.  Frank- 
lin, as  everybody  knew,  would  not  be  brought 
back. 

"  Mr.  Franklin's  pastor  must  answer  for  him, 
then,"  said  the  minister  ;  and  Mr.  Strong  walked 
up  the  aisle  amid  great  cheering.  In  a  few  grace- 
ful words,  he  told  the  congregation  that  Mr. 
Thorpe  was  right  in  his  conjecture ;  that  the 
plan  of  aiding  them  in  their  difficult  undertaking 
was  conceived  and  set  in  motion  by  Mr.  Frank- 
lin, who  had,  nevertheless,  been  supported  in  the 
heartiest  manner  by  the  gentlemen  on  whom  he 
had  called ;  that  the  whole  scheme  was  the  in- 
spiration of  a  moment  and  the  fruit  of  a  few 
hours'  work ;  and  that  he  trusted  the  result  of  it 
would  be,  not  only  the  emancipation  of  the 
Methodist  Church  from  the  bondage  of  debt, 
but  the  strengthening  of  the  bond  of  fellowship 
among  the  churches  of  New  Albion.  To  that 
wish  there  were  many  fervent  responses,  and 
after  a  prayer  of  thanksgiving  by  the  pastor,  and 
the  singing  of  "  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds,"  the 
congregation  broke  up.  That  day  will  never  be 
forgotten  by  any  who  had  part  in  its  doings,  and 
the  fruit  of  the  seed  then  sown  will  be  reaped 
in  the  increasing  charity  of  many  generations. 


VII. 

AT  the  November  meeting  of  the  League,  the 
first  suggestion  came  from  Mr.  Butterfield 
of  the  Free  Baptist  Church. 

"  I  have  been  approached,"  he  said,  "  by  sev- 
eral of  our  active  temperance  workers,  who 
greatly  desire  that  the  churches  of  this  place 
shall  unite  in  some  movement  for  the  promotion 
of  their  cause." 

"What  sort  of  movement?"  asked  Dr. 
Sampson. 

"They  did  not  say  very  definitely,"  was  the 
answer.  "  They  seem  to  think  that  the  churches 
are  not  doing  much  for  temperance,  and  that 
they  ought  to  do  more.  I  think  they  would  like 
to  have  us  open  our  churches  Sunday  evenings 
for  a  series  of  temperance  meetings." 

"And  let  them  take  the  management  of  the 
meetings  ?"  pursued  the  Doctor. 

"I  don't  know,  but  I  presume  that  they  would 
be  glad  to  be  recognized  in  that  way." 

"  No  doubt ;  but  I,  for  one,  prefer  to  manage 
my  own  temperance  meetings.  The  last  time 
5 


66  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

these  people  occupied  my  church  they  indulged 
in  an  amount  of  detraction  and  vituperation  that 
I  never  wish  to  hear  in  my  pulpit  again." 

Dr.  Sampson's  judgment  was  confirmed  by 
several  of  the  other  pastors. 

"  Might  we  not,  then,"  asked  Mr.  Butterfield, 
"  unite  our  churches  in  working  for  temperance 
under  a  leadership  furnished  by  themselves  ?" 

"  It  seems  to  me,"  answered  Mr.  Franklin, 
"  that  this  is  impracticable.  Union  work  in 
behalf  of  temperance  is  one  of  the  hardest  things 
in  the  world  to  secure.  We  can  cooperate  in 
ordinary  religious  work,  because  the  lesson  of 
toleration  in  religion  has  been  learned,  and  be- 
cause we  are  all  ready  to  forget  those  things  in 
which  we  differ ;  but,  as  respects  the  subject  of 
temperance,  there  is,  as  yet,  no  such  toleration  ; 
the  sectarianism  of  temperance  advocates  is  fully 
as  violent  as  the  sectarianism  of  the  churchmen 
was  a  hundred  years  ago." 

"  Are  you  not  rather  rough  on  the  temper- 
ance workers  ?"  asked  Mr.  Thorpe. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  be.  But  just  look  at  the 
facts.  There  are  gentlemen  in  this  club,  I  sup- 
pose, who  sometimes  use  wine  at  their  tables, 
and  who,  though  they  are  careful  to  abstain 
from  all  excess,  believe  that  they  have  a  perfect 
right  to  use  it  as  a  beverage.  There  are  other 
gentlemen  in  this  club  who  regard  every  such 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


67 


use  of  it,  no  matter  how  careful,  as  a  sin.  I  do 
not  belong  to  either  of  these  classes,  but  I  can 
easily  see  that  persons  holding  views  so  per- 
fectly irreconcilable  can  never  work  together  in 
promoting  temperance.  What  is  more,  some  of 
the  gentlemen  present  are  in  favor  of  the  pas- 
sage of  laws  by  which  other  persons  in  this 
company  would  be  put  into  the  category  of 
criminals." 

"  Oh,  come,  Franklin,  that's  absurd  !  You 
don't  mean  that,"  cried  Mr.  Thorpe. 

"  I  mean  just  that,"  persisted  Franklin. 

"  But  you  know  that  the  prohibitory  law  that 
some  of  us  favor  punishes  the  seller  of  liquor, 
not  the  drinker.  There  are  no  liquor-sellers  in 
this  room." 

"  A  man  cannot  ordinarily  drink  wine  without 
buying  it,  can  he  ?  " 

"  No,  of  course  not." 

"  You  wish  to  make  it  a  crime  to  sell  wine  to 
be  used  as  a  beverage  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  If  it  were  a  crime  to  sell,  then  the  buyer 
would  be  morally  particeps  criminis,  would  he 
not?" 

"  I  suppose  so." 

"  Very  well ;  there  are  gentlemen  here  who 
are  in  the  habit  of  buying  wine  to  be  used  as  a 
beverage,  and  there  are  other  gentlemen  here 


68  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

who  wish  to  make  the  selling  of  wine  for  that 
purpose  a  criminal  act ;  how  can  these  two 
classes  of  persons  come  to  any  understanding 
about  temperance  work  ?  I  am  not  discussing 
prohibition.  I  am  not  undertaking  to  justify  or 
to  condemn  either  of  these  classes  of  persons  ;  I 
am  only  pointing  out  that  the  difference  be- 
tween them  is,  in  its  nature,  insurmountable, 
and  that  they  can  only  keep  from  quarreling 
about  temperance  work  by  ignoring  the  whole 
subject." 

"  Well,  I  guess  you're  right,"  said  Mr.  Thorpe, 
soberly. 

"  Not  only  is  it  impossible,"  the  banker  con- 
tinued, "  for  these  two  classes  to  get  on  com- 
fortably together,  but  any  one  who  undertakes 
to  mediate  between  them  is  liable  to  have  his 
head  broken.  I  dared  to  suggest,  last  summer, 
in  a  temperance  meeting,  that  it  was  a  gross 
blunder  for  the  total  abstainers  to  make  war  on 
all  temperate  drinkers, — to  denounce  them  as 
malefactors  and  to  hold  them  up  to  public 
reprobation ;  that  it  would  be  much  easier  to 
persuade  than  to  coerce  them  into  the  ways  of 
abstinence.  For  venturing  that  criticism,  I  was 
denounced  as  a  toddy-drinker ;  and  a  crowded 
convention  of  reform  clubs  in  our  town  hall 
applauded  to  the  echo  the  assertion  by  one  of 
their  orators  that  I  was  worse  than  a  rum-seller. 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


69 


So  you  see  that  I  have  verified,  in  my  own  ex- 
perience, the  statement  that  toleration,  in  this 
field,  does  not  exist.  Not  only  is  there  no 
toleration  for  differences  of  theory  or  practice, 
there  is  no  toleration  for  people  who  preach 
toleration  and  who  try  to  bring  about  a  better 
understanding.  The  time  for  cooperation  in 
temperance  work  will  come,  but  it  is  not  yet" 

"  I  am  not  ready  to  come  to  that  conclusion," 
said  Mr.  Peters.  "  When  an  evil  so  great  as  the 
evil  of  intemperance  exists  in  any  community,  it  is 
humiliating  to  confess  that  the  Christian  people 
of  the  community  are  unable  to  combine  against 
it." 

"  "Tis  true,  'tis  pity  ;  and  pity  'tis  'tis  true,'" 
said  Mr.  Franklin. 

"  But  is  there  not  one  thing  that  can  be 
done?"  said  Mr.  Peters.  "Can  we  not  unite  in 
enforcing  the  penal  clauses  of  our  present  law 
against  violators  of  them  ?  Our  law  forbids  the 
sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  to  minors  and  to 
intoxicated  persons  ;  it  also  forbids  the  selling 
of  liquor  on  Sundays,  and  between  twelve 
o'clock  at  night  and  five  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
To  this  extent  it  is  a  prohibitory  law.  Now,  I 
am  a  prohibitionist ;  and  I  see  no  reason  why  I 
should  not  take  the  amount  of  prohibition  this 
law  allows  me  and  make  the  most  of  it.  We 
might  enforce  these  clauses,  if  we  would  work 


70  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

together ;  we  could  make  it  dangerous  to  sell  it 
to  boys  or  to  sell  on  Sundays.  That  would  be 
a  great  gain  ;  for  it  is  notorious  that  there  is 
more  drinking  done  on  Sunday  than  on  any 
other  day  in  the  week,  and  that  a  great  many 
of  our  boys  are  forming  the  drinking  habit." 

"  That  is  good  sense,"  said  Dr.  Strickland. 
"I  am  not  a  prohibitionist;  I  am  not  a  total 
abstainer ;  I  am  one  of  the  men  who,  as  Mr. 
Franklin  says,  Mr.  Peters  seeks  to  put  into  the 
category  of  criminals, — though  I  don't  mean 
to  let  that  slight  circumstance  mar  our  friendly 
relations." 

Here  Peters  arose,  and  extended  his  hand  to 
the  rector  amidst  much  merriment. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  heresy  of  my  opinions 
and  the  turpitude  of  my  conduct  in  this  matter 
of  temperance,"  Dr.  Strickland  continued,  "  I  am 
ready  to  do  as  much  as  any  other  man  in  this 
room  in  the  line  suggested  by  Mr.  Peters." 

"But  what  can  we  do?"  asked  Mr.  Hender- 
son. 

"  We  can  keep  our  eyes  and  ears  open," 
answered  Mr.  Peters,  "  and  report  what  we  see 
and  hear  to  the  prosecuting  agents.  These 
gentlemen  are  appointed  to  enforce  the  law,  but 
they  do  it  very  inefficiently, — for  what  reasons 
it  is  not  necessary  to  inquire.  It  will  do  them 
good  to  know  that  a  number  of  good  citizens 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  ^l 

are  carefully  observing  their  operations.  Let 
me  give  a  bit  of  my  own  experience :  I  was 
passing  along  Jackson  street  the  other  day,  in 
the  rear  of  Pat  Reilly's  saloon,  and  I  saw  a  little 
boy  not  more  than  seven  years  old  come  out  of 
the  back  door  with  a  pitcher  in  his  hand  and 
walk  down  the  street.  As  I  passed  by  him  I 
said,  carelessly,  '  Hallo,  bub  !  got  some  mo- 
lasses ?  '  '  No  ;  beer  ! '  he  said.  I  walked  right 
over  to  the  office  of  Mr.  Billings,  our  prosecuting 
agent,  and  told  him  what  I  had  seen.  He  was 
disposed  at  once  to  take  a  high  and  mighty  air, 
as  of  one  with  whose  business  I  was  meddling. 
He  wanted  to  know  how  I  knew  that  the  pur- 
chase of  the  beer  was  not  made  by  the  child's 
father  or  some  other  adult  then  in  the  saloon  ; 
and  whether  this  child's  testimony  would  con- 
vict ;  and  if  I  thought  that  what  I  had  told  him 
amounted  to  legal  evidence.  My  answer  was 
very  brief.  '  Do  you  believe,'  I  demanded,  '  that 
I  have  told  you  the  truth  concerning  what  I 
saw?'  'Certainly,'  he  said.  '  Very  well,'  I  an- 
swered. '  If  you  accept  that  as  truth,  you  are 
morally  certain  that  liquor  is  illegally  sold  by 
Pat  Reilly.  You  know  it,  and  I  know  that  you 
know  it ;  if  you  haven't  the  legal  evidence  it  is 
your  business  to  get  it.  Good-morning/  If 
Mr.  Billings  should  have  a  call  of  this  sort  every 
day  or  two,  showing  him  that  the  people  are 


72  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE. 

watching  the  violations  of  the  law  and  the  man- 
ner of  its  enforcement,  it  would  have  a  salutary 
effect  upon  him." 

"  That  seems  feasible,"  said  Dr.  Sampson. 
"  One  of  thq  greatest  curses  of  this  liquor  busi- 
ness is  the  laxity  in  the  enforcement  of  law,  to 
which  it  has  given  rise.  Through  our  liquor 
legislation,  the  respect  of  the  people  for  all  law 
has  been  greatly  weakened.  Anything  that  we 
can  do  to  add  efficiency  to  the  law  will  be  valu- 
able service." 

The  suggestion  of  Mr.  Peters  proved  a  fruit- 
ful one.  The  attention  of  the  members  of  the 
club  was  called  directly  to  numerous  and  glar- 
ing violations  of  the  law ;  they  took  pains  to 
inquire  and  to  report  concerning  them ;  and  a 
public  sentiment  was  thus  created  which  resulted 
in  the  more  vigorous  enforcement  of  law  and  in 
a  considerable  diminution  in  the  amount  of 
drunkenness. 


VIII. 

AS  the  winter  drew  on,  the  needs  of  the  poor 
began  to  exercise  the  minds  of  benevolent 
persons  in  New  Albion  ;  there  was  great  activ- 
ity in  several  of  the  sewing  societies,  and  the 
subject  came  to  the  front  at  the  December  meet- 
ing of  the  Christian  League. 

"  Our  constitution  names  the  care  of  the  poor 
as  one  of  the  proper  subjects  for  conference  at 
these  meetings,"  said  Dr.  Strickland.  "Just 
now  there  is  a  great  amount  of  this  work  to 
do,  not  only  in  our  own  parish,  but  also  in 
the  district  assigned  to  our  church  I  wonder 
whether  we  are  doing  this  work  as  effectively 
as  it  ought  to  be  done.  Little  children,  with 
scanty  clothing  and  pinched  faces,  come  to  our 
door  every  day  begging  for  food.  It  would 
be  a  burning  shame  to  us  if  any  should  be  left 
to  suffer." 

"  By  the  way,"  said  Mr.  Strong,  "  what  do 
you  do  for  these  children  that  come  begging 
for  food  ?  " 

73 


74  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

"  Feed  them,  of  course,"  answered  the  rector. 
"We  never  give  money  to  unknown  beggars, 
and  we  never  refuse  food  to  any  one,  known  or 
unknown,  who  asks  for  it  at  our  door." 

"  I  should  like  to  know,"  Mr.  Strong  sug- 
gested, "  how  many  of  the  members  of  this  club 
adopt  Mr.  Strickland's  rule  in  this  matter." 

The  answers  showed  that  it  was  the  rule  of 
the  majority.  One  or  two  owned  that  they  had 
no  consistent  method  of  dealing  with  such  cases; 
most  of  the  members  concurred  with  Mr.  Hen- 
derson when  he  said  : 

"  I  never  could  bring  myself  to  refuse  food  to 
any  person,  old  or  young,  who  asked  for  it  at 
my  door.  I  could  not  refuse  without  feeling 
that  I  had  disobeyed  the  command  of  Christ, 
'  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee.'  I  should  blame 
myself  if,  with  food  in  my  house,  I  suffered  any 
one  to  feel  the  pains  of  hunger." 

"  So  far  as  the  Lord's  command  is  concerned," 
said  Dr.  Sampson,  "  it  is  not  restricted  to  gifts 
of  food  ;  it  is  an  unqualified  rule,  is  it  not  ?" 

Mr.  Henderson  owned  that  it  was. 

"  Why,  then,  does  it  not  require  you  to  give 
money  as  well  as  food  to  every  one  who  asks 
for  it?" 

"  I  confess,"  said  Mr.  Henderson,  "  that  my 
exegesis  is  not  very  clear ;  but  it  always  seemed 
to  me  that  gifts  of  food  are  somewhat  different 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  75 

from  gifts  of  money,  and  that  while  it  is  evi- 
dently injudicious  to  give  money  to  beggars,  it 
is  a  sin  in  this  land  of  plenty  to  let  anybody  go 
hungry." 

"  But  Paul  says,"  Mr.  Strong  ventured,  "  'that 
if  any  man  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat.' 
That  maxim,  too,  is  unqualified." 

"  How  about  those  who  are  out  of  work  and 
can  find  no  employment  ?  "  queried  Mr.  Thorpe. 

"The  rule  does  not  apply  to  them.  If  'any 
man  will  not  work,'  its  language  is.  Those  who, 
for  any  reason,  are  unable  to  earn  their  liveli- 
hood must  be  fed.  But  in  many  cases  '  can't ' 
is  the  mask  of  '  wont ' ;  the  inability  to  find  work 
is  the  fruit  of  a  disinclination  to  work  ;  and  when 
it  becomes  evident  that  indolence  is  the  root  of 
the  trouble,  then  starvation  is  the  apostolic 
remedy,  and  I  believe  that  it  is  the  right 
remedy." 

"  I  can't  stand  by  and  see  a  man  starve,  no 
matter  what  his  fault  may  be,"  protested  Mr. 
Thorpe. 

"  I  can,"  said  Mr.  Strong.  "  I  shouldn't  like 
to  witness  the  suffering,  but  I  would  rather  do 
it  than  violate  that  law  of  God  which  makes 
starvation  the  just  penalty  of  idleness.  We 
have  set  aside  that  law  by  our  lazy  and  indis- 
criminate charities,  and  the  consequence  is  a 
rapid  increase  of  the  pauper  class  in  all  our  cities 


76  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

and  large  towns.  It  is  time  that  we  began  to  see 
the  righteousness  of  that  law,  and  to  help  in 
enforcing  it,  instead  of  helping  men  to  evade  it. 
There  are  just  two  things  for  us  to  do  in  this 
work  of  caring  for  the  poor :  We  must  make 
sure  that  no  one  who  is  both  needy  and  helpless 
shall  be  allowed  to  suffer ;  and  we  must  make  it 
equally  sure  that  no  one  who  will  not  work  shall 
escape  suffering." 

"  But  I  do  not  see,"  said  Dr.  Strickland, 
"  what  this  doctrine  has  to  do  with  those  lit- 
tle children  who  come  to  our  doors  for  food. 
They  are  not  able  to  earn  their  own  liveli- 
hood ;  on  Mr.  Strong's  principle,  I  ought  to 
feed  them." 

"  Have  you  taken  pains,"  asked  Mr.  Strong, 
"  to  investigate  the  life  of  any  of  these  children  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes ;  I  have  questioned  them.  One 
of  the  cases,  for  example,  is  that  of  a  little  girl 
whose  father  was  killed  in  the  war  and  whose 
mother  is  sick  with  rheumatism.  She  came  to 
the  door  the  other  day  when  we  were  at  dinner, 
and  it  was  the  first  time  I  had  seen  her.  The 
poor  child  was  scantily  clad,  and  had  the  most 
pitiful  face  I  ever  saw." 

"  What  was  her  name  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Strong. 

"  I  do  not  recall  it." 

"Was  it  Katy  Macauley?" 

"  Yes  ;  I  think  that  was  it." 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  -jy 

"  Did  she  tell  where  she  lived  ?  " 
"Somewhere  on  James  street,  I  think." 
"  Yes,  that  is  likely.  She  gives  a  great  many 
addresses,  but  never  the  true  one.  Her  home  is 
at  the  top  of  the  brick  block,  on  the  corner  of 
Swift  and  Thorne  streets  ;  her  mother  is  a  miser- 
able drunkard,  not  an  invalid  at  all,  and  she  is 
wholly  supported  by  what  this  child  brings  in. 
The  clothing  that  Katy  begs  she  peddles  for 
money,  and  thus  supplies  herself  with  rum. 
Whether  the  father  was  killed  in  the  war  or  not 
is  known  to  nobody  in  this  town ;  they  have 
only  lived  here  a  few  months ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  good  Christian  people  who  put  food  into 
Katy  Macauley's  basket  are  innocently  helping 
to  support  the  mother  in  vice  and  to  doom  the 
child  to  the  life  of  a  beggar.  That  is  her  calling 
now ;  what  it  will  be  by  and  by  can  be  easily 
conjectured." 

"  You  astound  me,"  cried  the  good  rector.  "  I 
had  never  dreamed  of  such  a  condition  of  things." 
"  This  is  not  an  exceptional  case,"  continued 
Mr.  Strong.  "  For  more  than  two  years  my 
wife  has  followed  home  every  child  who  has 
begged  at  our  door,  and  she  has  yet  to  find  a 
single  instance  in  which  the  parents  are  not 
either  drunkards  or  criminals,  or  both ;  and  I 
have  conferred  with  several  intelligent  persons 
in  Bradford,  and  in  other  cities,  who  have  made 


78  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

a  study  of  such  cases,  and  they  tell  me  that 
children  who  beg,  come,  almost  universally,  from 
homes  of  vice  and  shame.  People  who  are 
really  deserving  of  charity  do  not  send  their 
children  out  to  beg.  The  support  of  these 
wretched  people  in  idleness  is  a  great  evil,  but  it 
is  nothing  compared  with  the  wrong  that  is  done 
in  making  it  possible  for  them  to  bind  their  chil- 
dren to  the  trade  of  beggary." 

"  But  you  do  come,  now  and  then,"  said  Mr. 
Peters,  "on  a  pitiful  case.  A  poor  French 
woman  came  to  me  in  great  distress  a  few  weeks 
ago.  She  stood  weeping  on  the  porch,  and 
would  not  go  in.  It  was  difficult  to  learn  her 
trouble,  partly  because  her  knowledge  of  English 
was  imperfect,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  her 
grief  and  shame.  Her  husband  had  deserted 
her,  leaving  five  young  children  to  be  provided 
for.  She  was  in  actual  want.  I  followed  her  to 
her  wretched  home,  and  found  things  as  she  had 
represented  them." 

"  What  was  her  name  ?"  asked  Dr.  Sampson. 

"  Duquette,"  answered  Mr.  Peters. 

"Yes,"  said  the  Doctor;  "  I  know  them.  But 
why  did  they  appeal  to  you  ?  They  are  in  our 
visiting  district,  and  their  children  attend  our 
Sunday-school." 

"  One  of  them,"  answered  Mr.  Peters,  "  is  a 
member  of  our  Sunday-school." 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  yg 

"  Where  do  they  live  ? "  asked  Mr.  Hen- 
derson. 

"  On  Sands  street."  The  answer  was  volun- 
teered by  three  or  four. 

"  The  woman  came  to  me,  not  long  ago,"  said 
Mr.  Henderson,  "and  our  church  has  aided  her 
once  or  twice." 

"  How  many  children  did  Mr.  Peters  find,  on 
his  visit  to  Mrs.  Duquette  ?"  Mr.  Strong  wished 
to  know. 

"  I  saw  only  three ;  the  other  two  were  not 
in." 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  Strong,  "  the  other  two  are  a 
boy  of  fifteen  and  a  girl  of  sixteen,  who  were  at 
work  in  one  of  the  shoe-shops.  They  earn  about 
twelve  dollars  a  week.  Add  to  this  the  amount 
given  to  this  family  by  three  churches  within  the 
last  few  weeks,  and  the  liberal  weekly  orders 
given  them  by  the  town  overseers  of  the  poor, 
to  whom  they  have  applied  for  aid,  and  you  will 
see  that  Mrs.  Duquette  has  been  substantially 
comforted  for  the  loss  of  her  husband,  who  has 
indeed  run  away." 

The  laughter  that  followed  this  exposure  was 
at  the  expense  of  so  many  people  that  it  could 
afford  to  be  hearty  and  general. 

"  Nevertheless,  brethren,"  said  Dr.  Sampson, 
"we  have  the  poor  always  with  us  —  Christ's 
poor  as  well  as  the  other  kind  ;  and  the  duty  of 


80  THE  CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

finding  them  out  and  administering  to  them  is 
not  to  be  neglected." 

"Not  only  so,"  added  Mr.  Strong;  "these 
very  people  that  we  have  been  talking  about  ap- 
peal to  our  charity  quite  as  strongly  as  those 
whom  we  call  the  worthy  poor.  We  must  take 
care  that  they  do  not  subsist  in  idleness  and  vice 
upon  our  gifts.  Of  material  aid  they  need  but 
little,  though  sometimes,  even  to  them,  a  little 
help  of  this  sort  in  starting  on  a  new  career  may 
not  be  amiss ;  but  they  need  friendship  more 
than  anything  else  in  the  world, —  a  firm,  sensible, 
honest,  patient  friend,  who  will  show  them  a  bet- 
ter way  of  living,  and  lead  them  into  it,  is,  for 
every  one  of  these  wretched  families,  the  one 
thing  needful.  The  discovery  that  a  large  class 
of  people  exists  among  us  who  are  harmed  by 
the  indiscriminate  bestowment  of  money  or 
material  aid  is  no  sign  that  less  charity  is  called 
for;  not  less,  but  more  is  demanded,  only  it 
must  take  a  different  form.  I  find  no  difficulty 
whatever  in  accepting  Christ's  unqualified  rule 
of  charity :  '  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee.' 
Give  to  every  beggar,  I  say ;  give  him  what  he 
needs  most,  and  satisfy  yourself,  before  you  give 
him  anything,  what  are  his  deepest  needs.  If 
money  will  do  him  the  most  good,  give  him 
money ;  if  food  or  clothing  will  do  him  the  most 
good,  give  him  food  and  clothing ;  but  if  you 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  gl 

study  his  case,  you  will  probably  find  that  the 
aid  most  needed  is  moral  rather  than  physi- 
cal. Some  direction  the  man  may  require,  and 
some  encouragement,  and  much  bracing  of  his 
will,  and  not  a  little  rousing  of  his  self-respect. 
If  there  is  any  kind  of  Christian  work  more  im- 
perative than  this,  I  do  not  know  where  to  find 
it.  And  there  is  enough  of  it  to  do.  The  prob- 
lem of  pauperism  confronts  us.  In  all  our 
larger  towns  we  find  a  growing  class  of  those 
who  are  willing  to  subsist  without  work.  The 
slipshod  way  in  which  official  relief  is  generally 
given  by  the  civil  authorities  encourages  pauper- 
ism. The  effect  of  our  large  system  of  indus- 
try, which  builds  up  great  corporations  and 
gathers  into  tenement  houses  a  vast  homeless 
population  that  drifts  about  from  place  to  place 
and  never  takes  root  anywhere,  is,  I  greatly  fear, 
to  develop  pauperism.  So  we  have  among  us 
a  large  number  of  these  discouraged,  unthrifty, 
hapless  people,  some  of  whom  have  begun  to 
ask  for  alms,  and  some  of  whom  have  asked  so 
often  that  mendicancy  has  become  chronic  with 
them.  It  takes  but  a  short  time  for  a  family  to 
sink  down  from  self-respect  to  beggary,  and, 
once  in  that  slough,  it  is  very  hard  to  get  out. 
Last  winter,  our  overseers  of  the  poor  granted  out- 
door relief  to  more  than  one  thousand  different 
persons  —  one  in  fifteen  of  the  whole  population. 
6 


82  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

The  times  were  hard,  but  these  figures  must  in- 
clude not  a  few  whose  poverty  arose  from  a  de- 
fect of  will.  This  shows  us  what  a  work  we 
have  to  do,  and  I  heartily  agree  with  Dr.  Strick- 
land in  thinking  that  it  is  high  time  we  were 
about  it.  Excuse  me,  gentlemen,  for  inflicting 
on  you  a  lecture,  but  the  subject  is  one  in  which 
I  am  deeply  interested." 

"How  are  we  to  deal  with  this  problem?" 
said  Mr.  Franklin. 

"  We  need  but  little  additional  machinery," 
said  Dr.  Sampson.  "  The  town  is  already  di- 
vided geographically  among  the  churches  ;  each 
church  ought  to  subdivide  its  territory,  and 
assign  to  each  small  district  one  or  two  visitors. 
There  ought- to  be  a  central  committee,  meeting 
weekly  during  the  winter,  and  consisting  of  one 
person  from  each  church.  This  committee 
should  have  an  office,  at  which  a  record  should 
be  kept  of  all  the  cases  aided,  with  full  particulars 
of  each  case, — a  record  open  to  the  inspection 
of  visitors  only.  It  would  be  better  to  have  a 
common  relief  fund,  under  the  control  of  the 
committee ;  visitors  to  grant  only  temporary 
relief,  until  they  had  laid  the  case  fully  before 
the  committee.  It  would  be  necessary  to  have 
a  secretary,  who  should  keep  the  register,  and 
who  should  be  in  the  office  at  certain  hours 
every  day.  Then  the  people  should  be  pledged, 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  83 

if  possible,  to  give  no  money,  food,  or  clothing 
to  unknown  persons,  but  to  refer  every  applicant 
to  this  secretary,  who  should  put  the  case  at  once 
into  the  hands  of  the  visitor  in  whose  district  the 
applicant  lived.  The  secretary  would  need  a 
map  of  the  town,  with  the  boundaries  of  each 
sub-district,  and  the  name  and  address  of  its 
visitor.  Thus  all  applications  for  alms  could  at 
once  be  investigated,  and  that  over-lapping  of 
charity,  on  which  pauperism  thrives,  would  not 
be  possible." 

"  The  Doctor's  scheme  seems  rational  and 
feasible,"  said  Mr.  Franklin.  "  Can  we  not  have 
the  members  of  such  a  central  committee  chosen 
by  the  churches  this  very  week  ?  " 

To  this  question  there  was  no  negative. 

"  Then,"  said  the  banker,  "  I  trust  the  Doctor 
himself  will  attend  the  first  meeting  of  the 
committee,  and  submit  his  sketch  of  an  organ- 
ization ;  and  that  the  churches  will  speedily  sub- 
divide their  territory  and  appoint  their  visitors. 
No  time  should  be  lost." 

"You've  got  some  work  to  do,"  said  Dr. 
Strickland,  "  in  enlightening  the  community. 
Most  of  us  have  loose  notions  of  what  charity 
is.  This  talk  has  helped  me,  but  the  majority 
of  my  neighbors  are  as  much  in  the  dark  as  I 
was  an  hour  ago." 

"  This  is  true,"  Mr.  Strong  added,  "  not  only 


84  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE. 

of  the  church  people,  but  also  of  all  those  per- 
sons who  sneer  at  the  churches  and  who  boast  a 
religion  of  'good  works.'  The  man  who  does 
not  go  to  church,  but  who  gives  the  poor  family 
his  ton  of  coal  or  his  barrel  of  flour,  off  hand, 
and  no  questions  asked,  is  the  hero  of  a  certain 
class.  It  will  be  difficult  to  make  them  see  that 
their  hero  is  doing  about  five  times  as  much 
harm  as  good,  and  that  what  these  poor  people 
need  is  not  tons  of  coal  or  barrels  of  flour,  but 
time  and  thought  and  patient  friendship.  But  if 
any  man,  saint  or  sinner,  wants  to  follow  Jesus 
Christ,  this  is  the  path  by  which  he  can  come 
nearest  to  him. 


IX. 


IN  pushing  its  campaign  for  the  suppression 
of  drunkenness  and  pauperism  in  New  Albion, 
the  club  soon  found  the  need  of  a  work  more 
radical  than  any  it  had  yet  attempted.  The 
streets  of  the  town  were  thronged  every  evening 
with  young  men  from  the  mills,  whose  homes 
were  cheap  boarding-houses,  and  to  whom  the 
saloons  offered  about  the  only  place  of  resort. 
To  prevent  or  punish  the  sale  of  strong  drink  to 
such  of  them  as  were  under  age  was  well,  so  far 
as  it  went ;  but  the  call  for  more  efficient  meas- 
ures for  restraining  and  saving  those  young  men 
and  boys  began  to  make  itself  heard. 

"What  we  want,"  said  Mr.  Riddle,  one  of  the 
delegates  from  the  First  Church,  "  is  a  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association." 

"  Have  you  never  had  one  in  New  Albion  ?  " 
inquired  Mr.  Thorpe. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  answered  Mr.  Biddle,  "  we  had  a 
flourishing  association  here  for  several  years  — 
rooms  in  Stone's  Block;  had  a  secretary  who 


86  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

gave  his  whole  time  to  the  work ;  held  several 
conventions  here  ;  sent  delegates  to  all  the  inter- 
national conventions ;  went  myself  once  as  a 
delegate." 

"  What  became  of  it?" 

"  Oh,  it  died  about  five  years  ago." 

"What  ailed  it?" 

"  Well,  I  don't  know.  People  seemed  to  lose 
interest  in  it;  workers  dropped  off;  took  the 
secretary  pretty  much  all  the  time  to  raise 
money  to  pay  his  own  salary  and  the  rent ;  the 
thing  fell  through." 

"But  if  it  was  occupying  its  field  and  doing 
its  work,  I  should  have  thought  that  the  people 
of  New  Albion  would  have  refused  to  let  it 
die." 

"That  was  exactly  the  trouble,"  answered 
Dr.  Sampson.  "  If  the  association  had  confined 
itself  to  work  for  the  benefit  of  the  young  men 
of  the  town, —  providing  them  a  safe  place  of 
resort,  and  pleasant  companionship,  and  whole- 
some diversion,  and  good  religious  influences, —  it 
would  have  justified  and  prolonged  its  life.  But, 
led  by  certain  zealous  brethren,  it  undertook  to 
do  a  great  many  other  things.  It  began  to  hold 
gospel  meetings  at  the  jail  and  the  poor-house, 
and  outdoor  meetings  in  the  park  and  in  the 
groves  on  Sunday ;  it  undertook  to  establish 
mission  schools  here  and  there;  it  began  a 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  87 

series  of  evangelistic  meetings  in  every  town  in 
the  county ;  it  seemed  ambitious  to  take  into  its 
hands  the  entire  management  of  religious  affairs 
in  all  this  region.  Instead  of  being  a  society 
whose  object  was  to  work  for  young  men,  it  be- 
came a  society  whose  chief  object  was  to  afford 
a  few  zealous  young  men,  and  a  large  number 
who  were  no  longer  young,  an  opportunity  to 
exercise  their  gifts  of  speech  in  various  places  for 
the  general  benefit  of  the  human  race.  It  spread 
itself  so  thin  that  it  finally  soaked  in  and  disap- 
peared." 

"  But  could  we  not  have  a  new  organization, 
and  avoid  the  old  mistakes?"  asked  Mr.  Biddle. 

"  Possibly,"  replied  the  Doctor.  "  Yet  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  distinctively  religious  work  in  be- 
half of  our  young  men  can  be  done  as  well  by 
the  churches,  and  that  the  thing  we  most  want 
is  some  sort  of  a  place  in  which  young  men  may 
safely  spend  their  evenings  together." 

"That  is  what  you  want,"  said  Mr.  Franklin ; 
"  and  about  half  the  young  fellows  you  want  to 
get  in  will  be  kept  away  from  such  a  place  if 
it  purports  to  be  a  religious  resort.  In  vain 
is  the  net  of  a  Christian  Association  spread  in 
the  sight  of  most  of  these  birds.  But  if  you 
would  open,  say,  a  '  Young  Men's  Union  Club,' 
they  would  come  into  that ;  that  wouldn't  be  a 
scarecrow." 


88  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

It  is  not  necessary  to  detail  the  conversations 
that  followed.  There  was  considerable  differ- 
ence of  opinion  about  methods  ;  but  after  two  or 
three  conferences  a  plan  was  matured  by  which 
a  building,  devoted  to  the  young  men  of  New 
Albion,  was  erected  on  the  main  street  of  the 
town.  It  was  built  by  private  subscription,  and 
was  held  and  managed  by  a  self- perpetuating 
board  of  trustees.  On  the  front  of  the  building, 
cut  into  the  stone,  was  the  simple  legend,  "Young 
Men's  Club."  The  first  floor  was  occupied  by  a 
coffee-room,  a  smoking-room,  a  chess-room,  and 
a  reading-room.  The  second  story  front  room 
was  a  library  and  correspondence  room,  and  the 
large  room  in  the  rear  was  a  gymnasium,  which, 
with  a  supply  of  camp-chairs,  could  be  speedily 
converted  into  a  lecture-hall. 

The  club  was  not  free,  save  that  the  coffee- 
room,  opening  on  the  street,  was  for  the  use  of 
the  public.  Refreshments  were  furnished  at  low 
prices  —  a  good  cup  of  coffee  with  a  sandwich  for 
five  cents.  For  the  privileges  of  the  other  rooms, 
and  for  all  the  advantages  of  the  club,  members 
paid  fifty  cents  a  quarter.  For  the  gymnasium 
there  was  a  small  extra  charge.  It  was  found 
that  the  young  men  prized  the  club  the  more 
because  it  was  not  free,  not  wishing  to  be  men- 
dicants in  their  pleasures.  A  large  number  of 
the  young  men  of  the  churches  joined  the  club, 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


89 


and  took  part  in  its  various  literary  enterprises 
and  diversions.  Before  the  end  of  its  first  year 
it  had  a  membership  of  several  hundred,  and 
had  begun  to  prove  a  formidable  rival  to  the 
liquor  shop  and  the  minstrel  show. 

To  another  of  the  enterprises  set  on  foot  by 
the  Christian  League  only  a  passing  word  can 
be  given.  That  was  the  establishment,  in  one 
of  the  poor  districts,  of  a  free  kindergarten.  Dr. 
Strickland  had  visited  some  of  these  schools  in 
Boston,  and  had  come  back  full  of  enthusiasm 
for  this  method  of  charity.  "It  is  a  great  dis- 
covery," he  said.  "  No  other  work  promises 
such  results  in  the  salvation  of  the  poor.  If  you 
can  get  the  little  children  out  of  the  squalid 
homes  into  a  clean  and  bright  place,  and  keep 
them  there  four  or  five  hours  a  day,  under  the 
care  of  patient,  cheerful,  loving  women,  who 
never  beat  nor  scold  them, — who  teach  them 
the  first  principles  of  courtesy  and  kindness  and 
self-control,  and  keep  them  happy  with  pictures 
and  games  and  marches  and  songs, —  if  you  can 
keep  them  under  such  influences  until  they  are 
six  or  seven  years  old,  impressions  are  likely  to 
be  made  upon  their  characters  that  will  never  be 
erased.  The  memory  of  these  happy  years  will 
be  a  daily  blessing  to  them.  Besides,  through 
the  children,  you  get  such  access  to  their  parents 
as  you  could  secure  in  no  other  way  ;  and  the 


gO  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE. 

children  themselves  carry  the  gospel  of  neatness 
and  gentleness  into  their  homes — the  best  mis- 
sionaries you  can  find.  One  kindergarten  is  worth 
more  in  the  way  of  civilizing  and  Christianizing 
these  Arabs  in  embryo  than  six  mission  Sun- 
day-schools. One  hour  a  week  doesn't  amount 
to  much ;  four  hours  a  day  really  tells  on  a 
child's  life." 

Dr.  Strickland  was  so  thoroughly  in  earnest, 
and  he  brought  so  much  testimony  to  support 
his  project,  that  funds  enough  were  easily  raised 
to  set  the  kindergarten  a-going.  Once  at  work, 
it  so  completely  proved  its  beneficence  and  justi- 
fied Dr.  Strickland's  faith  in  it,  that  the  churches 
all  rejoiced  to  bear  a  share  in  its  support ;  as  its 
numbers  grew,  its  quarters  were  enlarged  and 
more  teachers  were  employed ;  now,  at  the  end 
of  three  years,  every  citizen  is  ready  to  testify  to 
a  great  improvement  in  the  manners  and  the 
morals  of  that  depraved  district  in  the  midst  of 
which  the  kindergarten  stands. 


X. 


IT  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Christian 
League  Club  had  lived  and  wrought  all  these 
years  in  New  Albion  and  been  heard  of  by 
nobody.  Its  members  took  no  pains  to  adver- 
tise its  doings,  neither  did  they  have  any  secrets. 
Many  things  had  come  to  pass  of  late  in  this 
thriving  town  ;  a  new  spirit  of  cooperation  and  of 
enterprise  had  taken  possession  of  the  churches ; 
their  power  was  more  perfectly  concentrated  and 
more  effectively  expended  than  ever  before,  and 
the  results  were  beyond  question  or  cavil.  The 
source  from  which  these  good  works  proceeded 
could  not  be  hid.  At  first,  there  was  a  disposi- 
tion on  the  part  of  some  of  the  uninvited  to  speak 
skeptically  about  "secret  conclaves"  and  "close 
corporations,"  but  as  it  became  evident  that 
nothing  nefarious  was  hatched  in  these  confer- 
ences, that  the  club  assumed  no  power,  and  only 
served  as  an  apparatus  for  generating  and  direct- 
ing public  opinion,  and  that  its  conclusions  had 
no  more  force  than  there  might  be  in  the  reasons 

91 


g2  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

by  which  they  were  supported,  the  ungracious- 
ness of  finding  fault  was  recognized  by  most 
sensible  persons,  and  the  club  became  a  highly 
popular  organization.  A  little  conversation  which 
occurred  one  day  between  Captain  Conover,  a 
Baptist,  and  Dr.  Duncan,  a  Methodist,  in  the 
office  of  the  latter,  fairly  illustrates  the  public 
sentiment. 

"  The  fact  is,"  said  the  captain,  "  that  we 
haven't  got  but  one  church  here  in  New  Albion. 
There  are  several  different  meetin'-houses,  and 
several  different  congregations,  and  they  have 
various  ways  of  workin'  and  worshipin',  but  there 
aint  but  one  church.  We  all  stan'  together  pretty 
solid,  I  tell  'em.  We  all  move  as  one  body. 
There  aint  any  pushin'  of  Baptist  interests  or 
Meth'dist  interests,  or  Congregational  interests 
or  'Piscopal  interests  ;  the  only  thing  we're 
pushin'  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  I  tell  you 
what  it  is,  it's  ben  a-comin'  faster  these  three  last 
years  'n  I  ever  see  it  come  before." 

As  the  captain's  heart  warmed,  his  dialect 
strengthened. 

"You  are  right,"  responded  the  Doctor. 
"  We've  got  things  on  a  very  good  basis.  I  was 
afraid  that  when  Brother  Thorpe  went  away  we 
might  get  a  minister  who  wouldn't  work  in  so 
well  with  the  rest ;  but  Brother  Hartwell  seems 
to  have  been  fairly  captured  by  the  League,  and 
he  will  do  his  part,  you  may  depend.  As  for 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  93 

the  Methodist  laymen  of  New  Albion,  you  can 
always  count  on  them.  They  have  some  solid 
reasons  for  thinking  well  of  this  club.  It  will 
take  them  a  good  while  to  forget  that  Sunday 
afternoon  when  the  little  chaps  walked  up  the 
aisle  of  our  church,  one  after  another,  Avith  the 
letters  that  proclaimed  to  us  deliverance  from 
our  bondage  of  debt.  I  don't  think  so  much  of 
shouting  as  some  of  our  folks  do,  but  I  shouted 
then  as  loud  as  the  loudest  of  them." 

"  Well,"  said  the  captain,  "  this  new  way  is 
a  pretty  old  way  after  all,  I  guess.  It's  about 
the  way  they  did  it  in  Ephesus  and  Antioch, 
when  the  disciples  was  called  Christians, —  not 
Baptists  nor  Meth'dists.  There  was  only  one 
church  there,  V  yit  like  enough  there  was  half 
a  dozen  congregations.  P'r'aps  they  didn't  all 
have  jest  the  same  rules,  nor  jest  the  same  ways 
of  worshiping  but  they  all  worked  together.  This 
is  the  kind  of  Christian  union  that  plain  and  sen- 
sible folks  believe  in.  Some  of  the  brothering 
that  run  the  machines  don't  think  much  on  't ; 
but  the  rank  'n'  file  are  sound.  We've  been 
a-prayin'  for  years  that  all  Christ's  disciples 
might  be  one,  and  makin'  no  end  of  talk  about 
it,  but  it  was  mostly  talk ;  now  we've  got  down 
to  business." 

Captain  Conover  was  a  sort  of  village  oracle, 
and  his  shrewd  comments  reflected  the  prevailing 
opinion. 


94  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Not  only  within  the  precincts  of  New  Albion, 
but  beyond  its  borders,  the  unity  of  its  churches 
became  a  theme  of  conversation.  In  three  or 
four  of  the  larger  towns  in  the  neighborhood, 
similar  clubs  had  been  formed,  and  the  expe- 
riences of  New  Albion  were  repeated  with  some 
variations.  The  notion  that  the  relations  of 
Christian  churches  ought  to  be  those  of  coopera- 
tion rather  than  of  competition,  began  to  get  a 
firm  lodgment  here  and  there  in  Bradford  County. 
The  small  country  towns,  back  among  the  hills, 
away  from  the  railroads,  were  the  places  into 
which  it  was  hardest  for  the  new  gospel  to  find 
entrance.  In  many  of  these  towns,  with  popula- 
tions of  less  than  a  thousand  persons,  there  were 
from  three  to  five  churches, —  sometimes  two  of 
the  same  sect.  The  members  of  these  churches 
generally  regarded  the  peculiarities  of  their 
several  sects  as  matters  of  supreme  importance, 
and  repelled  with  heat  any  suggestion  of  closer 
relations  between  the  churches.  The  narrowness 
of  the  laity  in  these  towns  was  not  likely  to  be 
mitigated  by  their  religious  teachers,  —  the  fee- 
bleness of  the  churches  making  it  difficult  for 
them  to  secure  pastors  of  intelligence  and  breadth, 
—  though  this  rule  was  not  without  shining  ex- 
ceptions. 

One  Monday  forenoon,  in  November,  Mr. 
Strong  with  Mr.  Hartwell,  the  new  Methodist 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


95 


minister,  a  man  of  fine  scholarship  and  excellent 
spirit,  had  dropped  in  at  Dr.  Sampson's  study, 
and  were  holding  a  rather  jovial  conference  with 
him,  when  a  weather-beaten  covered  buggy 
stopped  opposite  the  house,  and  a  venerable  man, 
with  a  clean-shaven  face  and  a  fringe  of  gray 
beard  under  his  chin,  passed  by  the  window  of 
the  study  and  rang  the  bell. 

"  That's  Father  Crane,  of  Monroeville,"  said 
the  Doctor,  going  to  the  door;  "  come  in,  Father 
Crane ;  come  right  into  the  study  ;  I  want  you 
to  know  my  friends  ;  "  and  the  Rev.  Jonas  Crane, 
pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Monroeville,  was 
formally  presented  to  the  other  two  clergymen 
and  cordially  received  by  them. 

"  You  must  have  got  an  early  start,"  said  Mr. 
Strong,  "to  have  driven  eighteen  miles  this 
morning." 

"  Somewhat  early,"  said  Father  Crane,  slowly 
and  precisely.  "  The  denizens  of  the  rural  com- 
munities find  it  necessary  to  use  the  prime  of  the 
morning,  and  I  awake  no  earlier  than  is  the  wont 
of  my  parishioners." 

"  Morning  comes  a  little  earlier  to  the  folks 
on  the  top  of  Monroeville  hill  than  it  comes  to 
us  dwellers  in  the  valley,"  said  Dr.  Sampson. 

"  New  ideas  strike  you  up  there  a  little  earlier 
than  they  do  us,  I  suppose,"  said  Dr.  Hartwell, 
smiling. 


96  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Father  Crane's  face  darkened. 

"  I  trust  not,"  he  said.  "  We  are  not  much 
given  to  novelties.  The  old  gospel  is  commen- 
surate to  all  our  exigencies." 

At  this  moment  the  servant  appeared  at  the 
study  door,  announcing  that  a  caller  was  inquir- 
ing for  Mr.  Strong.  The  latter,  begging  to  be 
excused,  went  out  into  the  hall  and  soon  returned, 
bringing  the  caller  with  him. 

"  Oh,  no ;  ceremonies  are  off,"  he  was  saying. 
"  Come  right  in !  Dr.  Sampson,  this  is  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Slade,  of  the  Congregational  Church 
in  Monroeville ;  Mr.  Hartwell,  of  the  Methodist 
Church  ;  you  know  your  neighbor,  doubtless." 
The  greeting  of  Father  Crane  and  Mr.  Slade  was 
not  unfriendly,  but  somewhat  constrained. 

This  irruption  had  not  subsided  when  Mr. 
Hartwell  was  called  out  in  the  same  way,  and 
returned,  rejoicing,  bringing  his  man  with  him. 

"  You  can't  outvote  me  any  longer,"  he  said ; 
"the  Methodist  reinforcements  have  arrived," 
and  he  introduced  the  Reverend  Mr.  Towne,  of 
the  Methodist  Church  in  Monroeville ;  where- 
upon there  was  hilarity,  into  which  the  three 
ministers  from  New  Albion  seemed  to  enter  with 
rather  more  spirit  than  the  three  ministers  from 
Monroeville. 

"Well !  "  said  Mr.  Strong,  putting  that  syllable 
into  a  heavy  expiratory  blast,  "  Monroeville  has 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  97 

come  down  upon  us  this  morning  like  the  wolf 
on  the  fold." 

"  And  for  the  very  same  reason  that  the  wolf 
came  down,  I  suspect,"  said  Mr.  Slade. 

"  Hunger,  eh  ?  "  suggested  Mr.  Strong.  "  Get- 
ting starved  out,  are  you  ?" 

"  My  brethren  can  speak  for  themselves,"  said 
Mr.  Slade  ;  "  but  that's  about  my  case." 

"  So  I  inferred  from  your  last  letter.  And  I 
have  a  shrewd  suspicion  that  all  you  Monroeville 
pastors  are  here  upon  the  same  errand." 

"  Father  Crane  had  written  to  me,"  said  Dr. 
Sampson,  "  that  he  wished  to  consult  me  with 
reference  to  a  grant  from  our  Home  Evangeliza- 
tion fund." 

"  Under  these  circumstances,"  said  Mr.  Towne, 
"  I  need  not  blush  to  confess  that  I  have  come 
down  hoping  to  obtain  a  few  subscriptions  from 
Mr.  Hartwell's  people  toward  making  up  the 
deficiency  in  our  accounts." 

"This  is  a  remarkable  coincidence,"  said  Dr. 
Sampson.  "  I  am  inclined  to  call  it  providential. 
And  now  we  are  here,  all  together,  it  is  a  good 
time  to  have  a  frank  talk  about  the  work  in 
Monroeville." 

"  How  large  a  town  is  Monroeville  ?"  asked 
Mr.  Hartwell. 

"  About  a  thousand  inhabitants,"  answered  his 
Methodist  brother. 
7 


Cjg  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

"Eight  hundred  and  twenty-three  in  1870," 
said  Dr.  Sampson,  referring  to  a  gazetteer.  "  The 
population  is  not  increasing,  I  presume  ?  " 

"  No ;   it  is  falling  off,"  answered  Mr.  Slade: 

"  Any  other  churches  besides  your  three  ?" 

"  No;  the  Episcopalians  have  a  small  interest 
and  the  Adventists  also ;  but  neither  society  has 
a  meeting-house,  and  neither  has  a  pastor.  They 
hold  occasional  services  in  a  hall." 

"  Five  religious  societies,  a  population  of  eight 
hundred  and  twenty-three :  exactly  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  souls  and  three-fourths  of  a 
soul  for  each  society." 

This  was  Mr.  Strong's  arithmetic. 

"But  when  we  remember,"  said  Dr.  Sampson, 
"  that  not  more  than  three- fifths  of  the  popu- 
lation of  any  town  can  attend  church  on  any 
Sunday,  we  reduce  the  number  of  possible 
churchgoers  to  less  than  one  hundred  for  each 
congregation." 

"I  suppose,"  said  Mr.  Hartwell,  "that  there 
are  many  families  in  your  town  that  are  not 
connected  with  any  of  your  churches." 

"  Of  course,"  answered  Mr.  Slade. 

"  How  large  a  proportion  of  your  people,  do 
you  think,  are  outside  all  these  societies?" 

"  Counting  in  the  Roman  Catholics,  of  whom 
there  is  now  a  sprinkling,  I  should  say  one- 
third." 

Further  questioning  brought  out  the  fact  that 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  99 

the  aggregate  membership  of  the  three  Monroe- 
ville  churches  represented  on  this  occasion  was 
ninety-eight,  and  the  total  number  of  persons 
present  on  a  fair  Sunday  morning  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty.  It  was  also  testified  that 
the  salary  of  the  Congregational  pastor  was  five 
hundred  dollars,  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  which 
was  contributed  by  the  home  missionary  organi- 
zation of  the  county;  that  the  Baptist  parson's 
salary  was  four  hundred  dollars,  of  which  one 
hundred  and  fifty  came  from  a  similar  source  ; 
and  that  the  Methodist  minister  subsisted  on 
three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  a  portion  of 
which  he  collected  every  year  by  visiting  well- 
to-do  Methodists  in  neighboring  towns. 

"  Now,  let  us  figure  a  little,"  Mr.  Strong  pro- 
posed. "  The  population  of  Monroeville  is  not 
more  than  eight  hundred  and  twenty-three  ;  the 
population  of  New  Albion  is  not  less  than  thir- 
teen thousand  ;  Monroeville  has  five  religious 
societies,  and  makes  no  provision  for  its  Roman 
Catholics  ;  New  Albion  has  ten,  including  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  If  we  had  as  many 
churches  in  proportion  to  our  population  as  you 
have,  how  many  churches  would  there  be  in 
New  Albion  ?  As  eight  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  is  to  thirteen  thousand,  so  is  five  to  the 
answer.  Cipher  it  out,  Brother  Towne.  What 
do  you  make  it?" 

"  Seventy-eight" 


100 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


"Yes;  that  is  the  number  of  churches  we 
should  have  in  New  Albion,  if  we  were  as  liberal 
in  our  allowance  to  ourselves  of  religious  privi- 
leges as  the  people  of  Monroeville  are  to  them- 
selves." 

"  You  don't  mean  that,"  protested  Mr.  Slade. 

"  Oh,  you  needn't  lay  it  to  me,"  answered  the 
other.  "  I  haven't  invented  these  facts.  I'm 
not  responsible  for  them.  The  question  is  not 
what  I  mean,  but  what  the  good  people  of  Mon- 
roeville mean." 

"  Your  comparisons  are  odious,"  laughed  Mr. 
Slade.  "  But  they  are  not  quite  fair.  We  have 
really  but  three  churches  in  Monroeville." 

"  Count  out  your  Episcopalians  and  your  Ad- 
ventists,  then,"  persisted  Mr.  Strong.  "  I  doubt 
whether  it  is  fair  to  do  it,  for  it  is  a  question 
whether  their  congregations  are  not  nearly  as 
large  as  some  of  yours ;  but  leave  them  out  of 
the  account  and  recast  the  proportion,  and  it  will 
give  us  forty-seven  churches  as  our  lawful  share 
in  New  Albion,  provided  your  standard  is  a  good 
one.  Are  your  people  any  richer  than  ours?" 

"  I  doubt  it." 

"  Is  the  valuation  of  your  town,  per  capita, 
greater  than  ours?" 

"  I  couldn't  say,  but  I  should  guess  not." 

"  No  use  in  guessing,"  said  Dr.  Sampson ; 
"  here  are  the  figures  in  our  State  reports,  and  it 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  IOI 

is  a  simple  sum  in  division.  The  valuation  of 
Monroeville,  per  capita,  is  exactly  four  hundred 
and  one  dollars,  and  of  New  Albion  six  hundred 
and  seven." 

"  We  are  much  better  able,  then,"  Mr.  Strong 
went  on,  "  to  have  fifty  churches  than  you  are 
to  have  three,  and  what  would  be  said  of  us  if 
we  undertook  to  maintain  fifty  separate  church 
organizations  in  this  town  ?  Our  ten  churches 
amply  provide  for  all  the  wants  of  this  com- 
munity." 

"  You  are  bearing  down  heavily  upon  us, 
Brother  Strong,"  said  Mr.  Towne.  "  But  there 
are  some  features  of  the  situation  that  you  do 
not  take  into  the  account.  You  must  remember 
that  these  churches  on  the  hills  have  long  been 
the  nurseries  in  which  many  of  the  members 
of  your  city  churches  have  been  trained.  Our 
young  men  grow  up  under  the  influences  of 
these  small  churches,  and  as  soon  as  they  are 
grown  they  depart  to  the  cities  and  the  large 
towns.  The  training  they  receive  while  they  are 
with  us  fits  them  to  be  useful  men  wherever  they 
may  go.  You  will  find  that  the  bone  and  sinew 
of  your  own  church  was  reared  on  these  hills." 

"  I  am  quite  familiar  with  that  fact,"  replied 
Mr.  Strong,  "  and  I  do  not  wish  to  leave  it  out 
of  the  account.  That  churches  ought  to  be 
supported  in  the  small  country  towns  needs 


IO2  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

no  argument ;  the  only  question  is  whether  you 
need  five  times  as  many  churches,  in  proportion 
to  the  population,  as  we  find  necessary  in  the 
larger  towns." 

"  But  our  population  is  scattered  over  a  large 
territory." 

"  How  far  apart  are  those  two  of  your  churches 
that  are  farthest  apart  ?" 

"About  a  mile." 

"  Do  the  people  pay  much  attention  to  the 
question  of  distance  in  selecting  their  churches?" 

"  I  cannot  say  that  they  do." 

"  Do  those,  for  example,  who  live  nearer  the 
Methodist  Church  than  any  other,  all  or  nearly 
all,  attend  the  Methodist  Church  ?" 

"  Oh,  no." 

"  Practically,  then,  so  far  as  distance  is  con- 
cerned, the  people  of  the  town,  take  them  all 
together,  would  be  as  well  served  by  one 
church,  located  at  some  central  point,  as  they 
are  now  ?  " 

"  Nearly  so  ;  yes." 

While  this  conversation  had  been  going  on, 
Father  Crane  had  been  nervously  stroking  his 
bald  head.  Like  the  dove,  he  had  found  no  rest 
for  the  sole  of  his  foot,  though  he  had  sought  it 
for  both  of  them  by  many  nervous  shifts  of  his 
left  leg  over  his  right,  and  vice  versa.  At  length, 
he  ventured  to  say  : 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


103 


"  Brother  Strong  seems  strangely  oblivious  of 
the  circumstance  that  Christian  people,  in  the 
rural  communities  as  well  as  the  urban,  have 
convictions  of  their  own  respecting  the  doctrines 
and  ordinances  of  religion  which  they  consider 
themselves  under  obligation  to  maintain.  We 
have,  in  Monroeville,  those  who  are  Baptists 
because  of  unfeigned  and  unalterable  persua- 
sion ;  and  Congregationalists,  I  presume,  of 
whom  a  similar  state  of  mind  might  be  predi- 
cated ;  and  Methodists,  who  also  devotedly 
desiderate  their  own  peculiar  forms  and  cere- 
monies. Why  have  we  not  an  equal  right  with 
the  dwellers  in  more  populous  places  to  indulge 
our  predilections?"  Father  Crane's  rather  pom- 
pous sentences  were  full  of  the  warmth  of  sin- 
cerity. 

"  Our  venerable  brother  goes  for  the  root 
of  the  matter  the  first  time,"  said  Mr.  Strong, 
instinctively  opposing  his  homespun  idioms  to 
the  country  parson's  Johnsonese.  "  The  reason 
why  there  are  three  churches  in  Monroeville 
instead  of  one,  is  that  everybody  thinks  he  must 
have  his  pet  notions  gratified  in  the  fashion  of 
church  life  and  work.  These  fashions,  like 
many  other  fashions,  may  well  enough  be  fol- 
lowed if  folks  can  afford  it.  Here's  my  neigh- 
bor, with  wages  enough  to  live  in  comfort  if 
they  are  wisely  expended.  But  he  thinks  that 


IO4  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

his  wife  must  have  just  so  many  ribbons  on  her 
bonnet  and  so  many  laces  on  her  cloak,  and 
that  his  girls  must  have  just  such  a  style  of 
shoes  ;  and  so  much  money  goes  for  all  these 
fine  fixings  that  he  has  to  come  around  once  or 
twice  a  year  and  ask  his  neighbors  for  flour  and 
coal." 

"  But,"  protested  the  old  gentleman,  "  you  do 
not  intend  to  insinuate  that  there  is  any  simili- 
tude between  the  vain  adornments  you  have 
mentioned  and  the  distinctive  principles  of  a 
religious  denomination!" 

"That  is  exactly  what  I  mean.  Ribbons  and 
laces  are  not  necessarily  vain  adornments.  They 
are  beautiful,  and  may  be  indulged  in  with 
thanksgiving  if  one  does  not  sacrifice  in  getting 
them  that  which  is  of  more  consequence.  In 
like  manner,  the  various  denominational  pecul- 
iarities are  innocent  enough  ;  but  they  add  noth- 
ing to  the  real  value  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
any  more  than  the  laces  add  warmth  to  the 
cloak.  Believing  in  these  denominational  pe- 
culiarities does  no  man  any  good  whatever.  It 
nourishes  no  man's  manhood;  it  saves  no  man's 
soul.  The  only  effect  of  exalting  these  things  is 
to  belittle  the  manhood  and  to  shrivel  the  soul. 
Yet  it  is  by  exalting  these  small  distinctions 
that  the  Christians  of  Monroeville  maintain  three 
churches  where  there  is  barely  room  for  one." 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  IO5 

"  You  fail  to  see  some  of  the  aspects  of  this 
case,"  said  Mr.  Slade.  "  I  have  always  thought 
it  better  for  every  family  to  have  a  home  by 
itself,  even  though  it  may  cost  a  little  more  than 
it  would  to  put  three  or  four  families  together  in 
the  same  house.  I  would  rather  have  my  own 
fire  and  my  own  table  and  my  own  family  altar. 
Such  an  arrangement  is  in  the  interest  of  peace 
and  happiness." 

"I  thank  you  for  that  illustration,"  answered 
Mr.  Strong,  "  because  it  is  familiar,  and  because 
I  wish  to  show  that  it  wholly  misses  the  point. 
The  Christians  in  Monroeville  do  not  belong 
to  three  families.  They  are  all  members  of  one 
family.  The  case  is  like  this  :  An  old  mother 
and  two  daughters  have  income  enough  to  live 
together  in  comfort.  But  there  are  some  small 
matters  about  which  they  disagree.  They  like 
the  same  kind  of  bread,  but  one  wants  the  loaves 
round,  and  another  prefers  them  square,  and  a 
third  insists  on  twists.  They  all  wish  to  burn 
coal,  but  one  desires  a  grate,  and  one  a  base- 
burner,  and  one  a  sheet-iron  stove.  Their 
differences  are  all  of  this  nature.  They  love 
one  another  dearly  —  so  they  say;  they  often 
get  together  and  tell  one  another  how  much 
they  have  in  common,  and  yet  they  insist  on 
living  apart.  The  rent  of  three  houses  must 
be  paid,  three  fires  must  be  fed,  three  lamps 


I06  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

must  burn  ;  the  expense  of  living  for  the  three 
is  more  than  twice  as  much  as  it  would  be  if 
they  all  lived  together.  Their  income  will  not 
support  them.  So  every  year  they  go  around 
among  the  neighbors  and  take  up  a  collection 
to  enable  them  to  keep  up  these  three  separate 
establishments.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  wis- 
dom of  this  management  does  not  always  appear 
to  the  persons  who  are  asked  to  subscribe  ?" 

"You  disapprove  of  denominations,  then?" 
queried  Elder  Crane. 

"  Let  us  stick  to  Monroeville  for  the  present," 
Mr.  Strong  proposed.  "  The  real  question  now 
is  whether  there  ought  to  be  three  churches  in 
Monroeville." 

"  Of  course,"  said  Mr.  Slade,  "  if  you  come 
to  that,  there  ought  not  to  be  more  than  one, — 
but " 

"Well,  go  on  ;  complete  your  statement." 

"  The  real  difficulty  is  to  know  which  two  of 
these  churches  ought  to  commit  suicide  for  the 
benefit  of  the  third.  Wendell  Phillips  tells  a 
story  of  the  discontented  wife  who  said,  '  They 
tell  us  that  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  the  man  and 
his  wife  are  one,  but  I've  found  out  that  the 
man's  the  one.'  I  suppose  that  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  of  Monroeville  are  all  agreed  that 
there  ought  to  be  but  one  church  in  that  town, 
and  that  the  Congregational  church  is  the  one; 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  IQJ 

and  that  the  Baptists  have  the  same  opinion 
about  their  church,  and  the  Methodists  ditto. 
For  my  part,  I  own  that  I  am  inclined  to  stand 
with  my  own  people.  Ours  is  the  old  church. 
Your  parable  of  the  mother  and  daughters  fits 
in  here.  The  girls  ought  to  have  staid  in  the 
homestead." 

"  I  don't  know  about  that.  There  was  a  real 
justification,  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago,  for 
the  formation  of  new  societies  here  in  New 
England.  The  protest  of  the  Baptists  against 
the  State  church,  and  of  the  Methodists  against 
the  hyper-Calvinism  and  the  frigidity  of  the 
Standing  Order  were  right  and  reasonable.  They 
did  a  good  service  in  coming  out  from  the  Old 
Church  and  lifting  up  their  standards.  In  view 
of  that  service  they  are  entitled,  I  think,  to  just 
as  much  consideration  as  the  Congregationalists 
in  the  settlement  of  this  problem  of  consolida- 
tion. But  the  real  reasons  for  separation  no 
longer  exist.  The  things  against  which  they 
protested  have  disappeared.  Your  Calvinism, 
Slade,  would  never  trouble  the  stoutest  Armin- 
ian ;  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  nine-tenths 
of  the  Congregational  ministers.  The  old  frigid- 
ity is  gone  from  our  worship ;  we  sing  and  talk 
and  pray  in  our  social  meetings  as  freely,  if  not 
quite  so  fervidly,  as  our  Methodist  brethren ; 
women  are  finding  their  voices ;  the  old  lines 


IO8  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

that  separated  the  two  sects  are  substantially 
obliterated ;  the  old  difference  between  us  and 
the  Baptists  with  reference  to  State  support  no 
longer  exists ;  and  our  ministers  now  generally 
immerse  all  who  desire  it.  There  is  a  deeper 
difficulty  with  respect  to  communion  not  yet 
overcome,  but  I  have  strong  hopes  that  even 
this  will  not  be  suffered  to  stand  in  the  way  of 
consolidation  in  the  small  towns." 

"  So  far  as  I  am  concerned,"  said  Dr.  Samp- 
son, "  I  am  not  prepared  to  abandon  the  Baptist 
ground  on  this  subject ;  but  in  view  of  the 
mischiefs  arising  from  division  in  small  com- 
munities, I  am  ready  to  go  to  the  verge  of  my 
principles  in  promoting  unity." 

"  Is  it  not  true,  brethren,"  Mr.  Strong  went 
on,  "  that  the  real  differences  of  doctrine  and  of 
worship  among  the  Christians  of  Monroeville  are 
wholly  insufficient  to  warrant  the  existence  of 
three  separate  churches?" 

Mr.  Towne  and  Mr.  Slade  at  once  confessed, 
and  denied  not.  Elder  Crane  was  less  acquies- 
cent. 

"I  am  now  an  old  man,"  he  said,  "and  I  do 
not  readily  accommodate  myself  to  new  meas- 
ures. I  acknowledge  the  justice  of  much  that 
Mr.  Strong  has  urged, — especially  the  historical 
references  that  he  has  adduced ;  but  I  could  not 
consent  to  have  my  little  church  on  the  hill 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


109 


abandoned.  There  are  too  many  precious  mem- 
ories." The  old  clergyman  paused,  and  there 
were  tears  in  his  voice  as  well  as  in  his  eyes. 
In  a  moment  he  went  on :  "  My  time  is  nearly 
come,  however.  One  part  of  my  errand  to-day 
was  to  consult  about  laying  down  the  burden 
that  has  become  too  heavy  for  me.  And  I  shall 
not  stand  in  the  way  of  any  plans  of  re-organiza- 
tion which  my  people  may  wish  to  adopt." 

"  I  understand  and  respect  the  feeling  of  El- 
der Crane,"  said  Mr.  Strong.  "The  old  asso- 
ciations are  sacred.  It  is  hard  to  give  up  the 
old  home.  But  when  it  costs  for  repairs  more 
than  we  can  possibly  raise,  and  we  are  in  danger 
of  being  buried,  in  its  ruins,  judgment  must  pre- 
vail over  sentiment." 

"  But  here's  the  rub,"  said  Mr.  Towne.  "How 
are  you  going  to  make  the  people  of  Monroe- 
ville  see  this  thing  as  you  do  ?" 

"  With  your  help,"  answered  Mr.  Strong,  "the 
thing  can  be  done.  Will  you  not  confer  to- 
gether, and  then  call  on  us  for  any  help  we  can 
render?  We  have  learned,  you  know,  here  in 
New  Albion,  how  to  dwell  together  in  unity,  and 
we  would  be  glad  to  show  our  neighbors  how 
they  may  go  and  do  likewise." 

The  two  younger  ministers  of  Monroeville 
promised  to  look  it  over,  and  to  see  what  could 
be  done,  and  thus  the  conference  ended. 


XL 


THE  report  of  the  conversation  in  Dr.  Samp- 
son's study  furnished  a  theme  for  the  next 
meeting  of  the  club. 

"Since  our  talk  that  morning,"  said  Dr.  Samp- 
son, "  I  have  taken  great  pains  to  get  at  a  few  of 
the  facts  about  the  small  towns  in  this  county. 
Monroeville  is  the  type  of  a  class.  There  is 
Stapleton,  with  a  population  of  eleven  hundred 
and  with  four  churches ;  Scantico,  with  six  hun- 
dred people  and  three  churches  ;  Rowell,  with 
nine  hundred  people  and  four  churches ;  and  so 
on.  Eight  towns  in  this  county,  with  an  aggre- 
gate population  of  nine  thousand  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four,  support  thirty-seven  religious 
societies.  Of  these,  at  least  fifteen  are  receiving 
more  or  less  aid  from  the  various  home  missionary 
organizations." 

"  Even  when  the  societies  are  self-supporting," 
said  Dr.  Phelps,  "  the  support  is  generally  mea- 
ger, the  membership  is  small,  and  the  terms  of 
the  pastorates  are  lamentably  short." 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE.  m 

"  It  is  plain,"  said  Mr.  Hartwell,  "  that  the 
churches  in  these  small  towns  ought  to  unite. 
What  hinders  them  ?  " 

"  First,"  answered  the  Doctor,  "is  the  strength 
of  the  sectarian  prejudice, —  always  more  intense 
in  the  small  places  than  in  the  large  ones. 
Then  there  is  a  sentiment  much  less  reprehensi- 
ble,—  the  attachment  to  the  local  organization, 
around  which  many  grateful  memories  cling. 
The  people  do  not  like  to  give  up  a  church  which 
may  have  a  noble  history,  and  which  is  sure  to  be 
the  shrine  of  sweet  associations." 

"  Certainly,"  said  Mr.  Hartwell;  "those  hin- 
derances  are  obvious.  They  may  be  called  senti- 
mental ;  even  so,  they  are  not  easily  overcome. 
Are  there  any  other  practical  obstacles  ?  " 

"  In  most  of  these  towns,"  said  Mr.  Peters, 
"the  only  way  of  uniting  would  be  to  abandon 
the  old  organizations  and  form  a  new  one, —  a 
union  church,  like  ours  at  Cyprusville." 

"But  do  you  know,"  Mr.  Franklin  broke  in, 
"  that  it  is  legally  impossible  to  do  anything  of 
the  sort?" 

"What  do  you  mean?"  demanded  three  or 
four  voices. 

"  Just  what  I  say.  The  union  of  two  churches 
of  different  denominations  is  a  proceeding  so 
rare  that  no  provision  for  it  is  made,  so  far  as  I 
can  learn,  in  our  statutes,  nor  in  those  of  any 


H2  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

other  State.  Secular  corporations  can  be  legally 
consolidated,  but  church  corporations  cannot  be. 
Christian  union  seems  to  be  regarded  by  our 
legislators  as  against  public  policy.  Churches 
have  sometimes  been  brought  together,  but  the 
act  was  unwarranted  by  law.  Any  troublesome 
member  of  either  church  could  have  procured 
an  order  from  the  courts  tearing  them  apart 
again." 

"Then,"  said  Mr.  Strong,  "it  is  high  time 
that  we  had  an  act  before  the  Legislature, 
enabling  churches  to  obey  the  Christian  law.  I 
hope  that  unanimous  consent  will  be  given  to 
the  appointment,  by  this  club,  of  Mr.  Franklin 
as  our  agent,  to  secure  the  passage  of  such  a  law 
at  this  session." 

Consent  was  readily  given.  Concerning  the 
work  of  Mr.  Franklin  in  the  lobby  of  the  Con- 
necticut Legislature  the  historian  of  the  club  is 
not  fully  informed  ;  but  the  facts  to  be  recorded 
below  indicate  that  he  must  have  been  success- 
ful. 

"There  is  another  practical  difficulty,"  said 
Mr.  Franklin,  picking  up  the  thread  of  the  dis- 
cussion where  Mr.  Peters  had  dropped  it,  "  more 
serious  than  the  legal  disability.  When  you  have 
got  your  union  churches  formed,  they  belong  no- 
where. Now,  people  like  to  feel  that  they  do  be- 
long somewhere.  If  they  are  weak  and  small 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  U^ 

themselves,  they  enjoy  the  knowledge  that  they 
are  members  of  some  respectable  body  in  whose 
interests  they  have  a  part.  These  union  churches 
have  nowhere  to  go,  unless  we  invite  them  into  our 
Congregational  conferences,  as  we  generally  do. 
But  then  the  other  sectarians  say  that  a  union 
church  is  nothing  but  a  Congregational  church. 
There  is  truth  enough  in  what  they  say  to  make 
it  necessary  to  devise  some  means  by  which 
these  union  churches  may  find  a  less  ambiguous 
fellowship  ;  and  I  propose  a  convention  of  all  the 
churches  in  the  county,  to  meet  twice  a  year,  for 
consultation  about  Christian  work  in  the  county." 

"Who  should  call  such  a  convention  ?  "  asked 
Mr.  Hartwell. 

"  This  Club,"  answered  Mr.  Franklin.  "A  com- 
mittee, consisting  of  the  minister  and  one  lay- 
man from  each  of  our  churches,  should  issue 
the  call,  summoning  every  church  in  the  county 
to  send  its  pastor  and  a  lay  delegate  to  such  a 
convention,  at  which  a  permanent  organization 
should  be  effected." 

"  What  churches  should  we  invite  ?  " 

"  I  would  put  the  Apostles'  Creed  into  the  call, 
and  send  it  to  every  church  in  the  county, — 
Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic, —  with  a  sentence 
explaining  that  any  church  which  accepts  this 
creed  and  conforms  to  it  in  its  teaching  would  be 
welcome  in  the  convention." 
8 


H4  CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

"  Do  you  suppose  that  the  Romanists  would 
come  ?  "  queried  Dr.  Strickland. 

"  I  fear  they  would  not ;  but  I  would  invite 
them." 

"Would  you  dare  to  open  the  doors  to  here- 
tics ?  "  asked  Mr.  Peters. 

"  Any  church  that  makes  its  teachings  con- 
form to  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  orthodox  enough 
for  me.  I  mean  that  I  am  willing  to  make  that 
Creed  the  basis  of  union  in  Christian  work.  Are 
not  you  ?  " 

"  I'm  not  at  this  moment  prepared  to  say  that 
I  would  not." 

"I  trust,"  said  the  banker,  dryly,  "that  you 
never  will  be  any  better  prepared  than  you  are 
at  this  moment." 

The  club  discussed  the  proposed  convention 
vigorously  for  an  hour,  and  then,  no  one  dissent- 
ing, the  committee  was  appointed  and  the  call 
was  speedily  issued.  The  object  of  the  conven- 
tion, as  stated  in  the  call,  was  "  to  promote  union 
and  efficiency  in  Christian  work,  and  to  secure  a 
more  systematic  evangelization  of  the  destitute 
neighborhoods  throughout  the  county."  The 
organization  effected  was  simple.  It  was  named 
"The  Christian  League  of  Bradford  County." 
The  only  permanent  officer  was  the  secretary. 
An  Outlook  Committee  of  five  was  to  be  ap- 
pointed at  each  meeting,  whose  duty  it  should  be 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  Ug 

to  make  inquiry  respecting  the  feeble  churches, 
and  to  secure,  so  far  as  possible,  cooperation  or 
consolidation.  Meetings  were  to  be  held  twice 
a  year,  on  the  first  Tuesdays  of  April  and  Octo- 
ber. Papers  and  addresses  showing  the  waste 
and  mischief  caused  by  sectarian  divisions,  and 
the  need  of  unity,  were  to  be  provided  by  the 
Outlook  Committee  for  each  meeting.  The 
principal  object  of  the  League,  as  defined  in 
the  preamble,  was  "  to  generate  and  disseminate 
right  opinions  respecting  the  duty  of  Christians 
to  cooperate,  to  see  that  the  waste  places  are 
cultivated,  and  to  extend  the  fellowship  of  all 
believers  to  those  churches  that  have  no  denom- 
inational fellowship." 

There  was  some  hesitation,  at  first,  about 
this  project ;  but  the  representatives  of  the  New 
Albion  churches  all  threw  themselves  into  it 
with  such  heartiness  that  the  doubts  and  scruples 
of  the  rest  were  vanquished,  and  the  constitution 
was  adopted  with  some  enthusiasm. 

Not  many  days  after  this,  a  letter  from  Mon- 
roeville  invited  a  deputation  from  the  churches 
of  New  Albion  to  come  up  and  hold  a  public 
meeting  in  the  interests  of  Christian  union.  The 
three  ministers  who  had  part  in  the  accidental 
conference  in  Dr.  Sampson's  study  responded 
to  this  call,  taking  with  them  Dr.  Strickland,  of 
the  Episcopalians,  and  Elder  Bates,  of  the  Advent- 


IZ5  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

ists.  They  found  the  Town  Hall  crowded  with 
a  curious  and  not  very  sympathetic  assembly. 
It  was  evident  that  there  were  not  a  few  of  these 
auditors  who  were  quite  of  the  mind  of  the  his- 
toric deacon :  they  were  ready  to  be  convinced, 
if  they  were  in  error,  and  would  like  to  see 
the  man  that  could  do  it.  But  the  New  Albion 
delegation  had  no  misgivings.  They  knew  that 
the  idea  they  advocated  was  right  and  reason- 
able, and  they  talked  like  men  who  expected  to 
carry  their  point.  The  speech  of  the  evening, 
all  things  considered,  was  that  of  Mr.  Hartwell. 
Several  years  of  his  earlier  ministry  had  been 
spent  in  these  small  towns,  and  he  spoke  from  a 
full  experience  of  the  evils  of  sectarian  division. 
"  I  never  was  in  Monroeville  before,"  he  said; 
"  but  I  have  lived  in  towns  just  like  it,  and  I  can 
tell  something  about  the  state  of  things  in  this 
town  which  will  be  no  news  to  you,  but  which  it 
may  do  you  no  harm  to  hear.  Your  five  little 
societies,  living  here  at  a  poor,  dying  rate,  do 
not  have  a  very  good  time.  You  cannot  live 
without  help  from  outside  ;  that  is  confessed. 
With  all  the  help  you  can  get,  none  of  these 
churches  is  able  to  offer  its  pastor  a  decent  living. 
The  salaries  are  so  small  that  the  grade  of  men 
you  are  able  to  secure  is  extremely  low.  Now 
and  then  a  man  of  good  gifts  and  great  fidelity, 
like  the  venerable  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church, 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


117 


settles  in  a  town  like  this  and  stays  many  years ; 
but  the  great  majority  are  young  men  who  will 
not  stay  more  than  a  year  or  two,  or  men  who 
have  failed  everywhere  else,  and  who  sometimes 
fasten  themselves  on  you  and  give  you  plenty 
of  trouble  in  getting  rid  of  them.  The  Meth- 
odists have  a  way  of  managing  such  cases  ;  but 
the  Methodist  churches  in  these  small  towns 
rarely  keep  a  man  through  the  three  years  that 
the  discipline  allows,  unless  he  is  a  man  they  do 
not  want.  Is  not  that  true  ? 

"The  consequence  is  that  your  Christian  work 
is  poorly  done.  Many  waste  places  in  the  cor- 
ners of  these  towns  are  sadly  neglected,  and 
are  becoming  rapidly  heathenized.  The  religious 
wants  of  these  communities  are  not  so  well  pro- 
vided for  as  they  were  in  the  days  when  there 
was  but  one  church.  You  say  that  you  are  send- 
ing down  to  the  cities  a  constant  stream  of  your 
young  men,  and  that  is  true  ;  but  the  young  men 
that  you  are  sending  us  nowadays  are  not  of  so 
good  a  quality  as  those  you  sent  fifty  years  ago. 
The  young  men  of  your  town  do  not  get  so  much 
benefit  from  your  churches  as  they  got  fifty  or 
sixty  years  ago.  How  can  they  ?  What  have 
you  here  to  attract  the  attention  and  command 
the  respect  of  intelligent  young  men  ?  Your 
feeble,  half-alive  churches,  that  struggle  for  ex- 
istence and  are  afflicted  with  chronic  debility, 


IT8  7WE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

do  not  strongly  appeal  to  the  enthusiasm  of 
young  men. 

"  The  social  life  of  your  town  is  marred  by 
these  hateful  divisions.  The  people  of  each 
church  are  a  little  clique ;  there  are  not  enough 
of  them  to  make  it  lively  when  they  get  to- 
gether ;  petty  sectarian  jealousies  keep  you  apart. 
If  the  Methodists  have  a  fair  or  a  supper,  very 
few  go  but  their  own  folks  ;  if  the  Congregation- 
alists  try  to  have  a  course  of  lectures,  they  must 
depend  mainly  on  their  own  congregation  for  an 
audience.  Of  course,  there  is  some  denomina- 
tional reciprocity,  but  it  is  limited.  The  barren- 
ness of  your  social  life  is  largely  due  to  these 
sectarian  divisions.  They  constitute  one  of  the 
principal  reasons  why  life  here  is  undesirable  — 
why  people,  especially  young  men,  get  away  as 
soon  as  ever  they  can. 

"  So,  then,  even  as  things  are  now,  with  all 
the  help  you  are  getting,  I  am  sure  that  you 
yourselves  can  see  that  you  are  not  succeeding 
in  doing  for  your  town,  with  your  present  ma- 
chinery, what  needs  to  be  done. 

"The  devotion  and  the  earnestness  of  many 
men  and  women  here  is  worthy  of  all  praise  ;  but 
the  results  of  their  work,  as  they  will  admit,  are 
meager  and  unsatisfactory.  If,  then,  things  could 
go  on  upon  the  present  basis,  there  would  not  be 
much  encouragement  in  the  prospect ;  but  I  am 


OF  CONNECTICUT, 


119 


bound  to  tell  you  that  I  doubt  whether  things 
can  go  on  much  longer  upon  the  present  basis. 
I  do  not  believe  that  the  Christian  people  of  the 
country  will  be  willing  much  longer  to  contribute 
money  for  the  perpetuation  of  these  sectarian 
divisions.  Many  are  beginning  to  see  pretty 
clearly  the  foolishness  and  sin  of  them,  and  to 
demand  that  they  shall  cease.  This  is  a  fact  to 
which  you  must  give  due  heed.  You  are  wise 
enough  to  make  a  virtue  of  necessity. 

"  Think,  if  you  can,  how  much  better  it  would 
be  to  have  one  religious  society  here  instead  of 
five.  You  could  have  one  good  church  edifice  ; 
you  could  take  the  largest  and  best  of  your  three 
and  renovate  and  beautify  it  for  your  place  of 
worship,  and  fit  up  one  of  the  others  fora  lecture 
hall  and  for  other  social  purposes.  You  could 
have  one  first-rate  minister,  and  pay  him  a  good 
salary,  and  not  need  to  beg  a  cent  of  it  from  any- 
body. You  could  have  your  pick  of  all  the  sing- 
ers in  town  for  your  choir.  You  would  have  one 
fine  congregation, —  large  enough  to  make  preach- 
ing and  listening,  too,  much  more  inspiring.  Your 
minister  would  be  likely  to  remain  with  you  sev- 
eral years, —  long  enough  to  get  acquainted  with 
the  absentees  of  the  out-districts,  to  gain  their 
friendship,  and  to  mature  plans  of  successful  work 
among  them.  Your  social  life  would  be  improved. 
By  combining  all  your  forces,  you  could  have  sing- 


12Q  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

ing  schools,  concerts,  courses  of  lectures,  reading 
circles,  various  literary  and  musical  diversions  of 
an  excellent  character.  Monroeville  would  be  a 
pleasanter  place  to  live  in ;  people  would  not  be 
in  such  a  hurry  to  get  away  ;  property  would 
cease  to  depreciate. 

"What  is  the  condition  of  all  this  gain? 
Simply  that  you  should  drop  your  small,  secta- 
rian prejudices,  and  begin  to  be  what  the  disci- 
ples were  called  at  Antioch  —  Christians,  nothing 
more  nor  less.  Simply  that  you  should  learn  to 
love  Christ  and  His  cause  better  than  you  love 
your  own  pet  peculiarities  of  doctrine  or  worship. 
Is  that  impossible  ?  Does  anybody  mean  to  say 
that  the  members  of  these  churches  in  Monroe- 
ville are  so  narrow  and  obstinate  that  they  cannot 
make  so  small  a  sacrifice  for  so  great  a  good  ; 
that  they  will  insist  on  maintaining  in  a  town  of 
eight  hundred  inhabitants  five  separate,  starving, 
sectarian  organizations  instead  of  one  vigorous, 
Christian  church  ?  Does  any  man  tell  me  that 
the  people  of  Monroeville,  after  coming  together 
and  looking  this  question  in  the  face,  are  going 
away  to  say,  '  It  is  of  no  use ;  we  are  too  selfish 
and  bigoted  ;  we  cannot  live  together  peaceably  ; 
we  must  stick  to  our  separate  churches,  though 
they  perish,  and  religion  and  virtue  and  social 
life  perish  with  them?'  No,  my  friends.  I  have 
a  better  opinion  of  you.  You  have  remained  in 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  12I 

this  unhappy  condition  because  you  saw  no  good 
way  out  of  it ;  now  the  way  is  open,  and  you  will 
walk  in  it." 

Mr.  Hartwell's  speech  carried  the  day.  A 
committee,  consisting  of  the  pastor  and  two  mem- 
bers from  each  of  the  societies,  was  named  on  the 
spot  and  instructed  to  mature  a  plan  of  consoli- 
dation, to  be  presented  to  each  of  the  churches. 
Within  two  months,  all  the  old  societies  had  been 
disbanded,  and  a  new  one  formed  under  the  style 
of  Unity  Church.  The  meeting-house  of  the 
Congregationalists,  which  was  largest  and  most 
central,  was  retained  as  the  house  of  worship; 
that  of  the  Baptists  was  refitted  as  a  social  hall, 
and  that  of  the  Methodists  was  purchased  by  the 
town  for  a  school-house, —  the  money  thus  ob- 
tained being  devoted  to  a  renovation  of  the  other 
houses.  The  Apostles'  Creed  served  the  new 
church  for  its  confession  of  faith,  and  its  organ- 
ization was  in  most  respects  similar  to  that  of  the 
church  in  Cyprusville.  Mr.  Slade  easily  found 
another  field  of  labor  in  Kansas,  the  end  of  the 
conference  year  terminated  Mr.  Towne's  stay  in 
Monroeville,  and  Elder  Crane,  who  continued  to 
reside  in  the  town,  gratified  the  universal  wish 
by  taking  charge  of  the  new  organization  until 
a  pastor  could  be  found.  The  behavior  of  the 
good  old  clergyman  in  all  this  experience  was 
eminently  judicious  and  Christian.  His  rhetoric 


I22  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE. 

was  turgid  and  his  opinions  were  not  modern, 
but  his  heart  was  sound  and  the  people  loved 
him. 

Thus  it  was  that  five  feeble  bands  of  sectaries 
in  one  small  town  were  united  into  one  efficient 
and  self-supporting  Christian  church. 


XII. 

A  LITTLE  more  than  two  years  after  the 
Union  mass-meeting  in  the  Town  Hall  at 
Monroeville,  on  a  delightful  October  evening, 
old  Major  stopped  at  the  parsonage  door,  and 
the  parson  took  his  seat  in  the  open  buggy. 

"  Let's  see;  how  long  have  you  been  gone  ?  " 

"Eighteen  months,  next  Monday." 

"And  you've  seen  pretty  much  all  that's  worth 
seeing  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  ?  " 

"  Not  quite,  but  enough  to  think  of  for  some 
time." 

"  And  you're  thoroughly  rested  and  well  ?  " 

"  Never  was  so  well  in  my  life." 

"  Good !  We  were  very  anxious  about  you 
at  first,  but  the  later  news  comforted  us.  The 
people  have  taken  solid  enjoyment  all  the  while  in 
the  knowledge  that  you  were  resting  and  recov- 
ering your  health.  They  will  give  you  a  hearty 
welcome  at  the  prayer-meeting  to-morrow  night." 

"  Bless  their  faithful  hearts  !  "  said  the  pastor, 

his  eyes  filling.     "  How  gladly  will  I  spend  and 
123 


124 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


be  spent  for  them  in  the  coming  days  !  But  tell 
me  the  news.  I've  had  family  news  often,  and 
church  news  now  and  then,  but  beyond  these 
almost  nothing.  How  goes  the  Club  ?  " 

"Gloriously!  It  is  pushing  right  on  to  con- 
quest. At  every  meeting  we  have  news  of  some 
good  fruit  that  has  grown  from  its  sowing." 

"  How  fares  the  work  among  the  poor  ?  " 

"  We've  got  that  into  excellent  shape.  Men- 
dicancy and  pauperism  are  pretty  effectually  sup- 
pressed. There  are  no  more  beggars  at  our  back 
doors  ;  the  tramps  give  us  a  wide  berth.  We 
hammered  at  the  overseers  of  the  poor  till  we  got 
them  to  stop  their  careless  largesses  of  alms  to 
the  idle  and  the  vicious ;  they  employ  our  vis- 
itors, now,  to  investigate  their  cases,  and  the 
amount  of  outdoor  relief  has  been  reduced  sixty 
per  cent." 

"  But  I  hope  you  haven't  ended  with  suppress- 
ing pauperism?" 

"  Oh,  no.  Our  visitors  are  beginning  to  take 
hold  of  the  work  of  caring  for  the  sick,  and  of 
helping  the  poor  and  the  discouraged  and  the 
shiftless,  in  a  most  intelligent  way.  The  work 
that  has  been  accomplished,  not  only  in  minis- 
tering to  the  helpless,  but  in  lifting  up  degraded 
families  and  inspiring  the  miserable  with  hope- 
fulness and  courage  and  self-respect,  is  the  most 
genuine  Christian  work  that  has  ever  been  done 
in  New  Albion." 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


125 


"  How  about  Dr.  Strickland's  kindergarten?" 
"  There  are  three  of  them  now,  all  doing  ex- 
cellently." 

"The  Young  Men's  Club  —  is  that  thriving?" 
"  It  has  a  membership  of  six  hundred." 
"And    the     County    League  —  how     is    that 
flourishing  ?  " 

"  Now  you  begin  to  get  down  to  business  with 
your  catechism.  The  County  League,  sir,  has 
its  foot  upon  its  native  hills,  but  its  fame  has 
gone  into  all  the  earth.  Didn't  you  hear  of  it 
in  Moab?" 

"  Not  a  syllable,"  answered  the  parson,  laugh- 
ing. 

"  Well,  sir,  the  Moabites  may  as  well  set  their 
meeting-houses  in  order,  for  it  will  be  after  'em 
shortly.  See.  You  helped  to  reconstruct  Mon- 
roeville.  Scantico  followed  suit ;  but  that  was 
before  you  went  away.  Then  the  Outlook  Com- 
mittee got  its  eye  on  Rowell  and  began  to  put 
on  a  gentle  pressure.  The  result  there  was  dif- 
ferent from  that  in  the  other  two  towns.  The 
Methodist  Church  was  pretty  strong  —  much 
stronger  than  either  of  the  other  three,  and  the 
committee  recommended  elimination  by  sub- 
traction instead  of  substitution.  The  Methodist 
Church  kept  its  organization,  but  broadened  its 
methods  somewhat,  and  the  other  people  gave 
up  their  own  churches  and  went  in  with  the 
Methodists.  Of  course,  the  Methodists  did 


I26  THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

everything  they  could  to  make  it  agreeable  for 
the  others ;  put  them  into  offices,  got  a  quiet, 
broad-minded  man  for  their  next  minister,  and 
exercised  a  real  Christian  hospitality  in  their 
reception  of  the  members  of  the  other  churches. 
I  hear  that  they  have  all  learned  to  sing  the 
Jubilee  song: 

" '  A  Methodist,  Methodist  will  I  live, 
And  a  Methodist  will  I  die,' 

with  the  spirit  and  the  understanding  also.  That's 
Rowell.  In  Woodford,  the  Baptist  Church  was 
found  to  be  the  fittest  to  survive.  The  Baptist 
minister  exchanges  once  a  month  regularly  with 
the  Rowell  minister,  and  then  the  Baptists  in 
Rowell  who  can't  commune  with  the  rest  have 
a  special  communion  service,  and  the  Pedobap- 
tists  in  Woodford  who  want  their  babies  bap- 
tized have  that  service  performed  for  them  at 
their  houses.  In  Tuckerton  and  Millville,  union 
churches  have  been  formed ;  and  of  the  towns 
in  this  county  where  small  populations  were  once 
split  up  among  several  feeble  churches,  all  but 
two  are  now  happy  in  the  possession  of  one  good 
church.  Besides,  our  Outlook  Committee  has 
been  spying  out  the  neglected  districts,  and  stir- 
ring up  the  people  of  the  towns  to  occupy  them  ; 
we  have  reports  from  them  in  the  meetings  of 
the  County  League,  and  I  am  sure  that  a  great 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  I2j 

many  more  people  in  Bradford  County  are  now 
under  religious  influences  than  there  ever  were 
before." 

"  Good  ! "  shouted  Mr.  Strong. 

"  But  you  haven't  got  the  whole  of  it  yet," 
said  Franklin.  "  To  the  next  meeting  of  the 
County  League,  after  you  went  away,  a  delega- 
tion of  Dunham  County  folks,  from  Samsonville 
and  Knox  and  other  places,  came  in,  and  they 
got  into  the  spirit  of  the  movement,  and  went 
back  and  formed  a  Christian  League  in  Dunham 
County.  The  matter  began  to  be  talked  about 
all  over  the  State.  The  newspapers  took  hold 
of  it,  and  pushed  it  hard  ;  the  business  men  per- 
ceived the  reasonableness  and  justice  of  it,  and 
made  their  influence  felt  in  favor  of  it,  and  soon 
every  county  in  the  State  had  swung  into  line. 
Midland  County  was  the  last  to  organize,  and 
their  league  was  formed  last  April,  five  months 
ago.  And  week  before  last  the  secretaries  and 
outlook  committees  of  all  the  county  leagues 
held  a  meeting  in  Bradford,  and  formed  'The 
Christian  League  of  Connecticut.'  Its  object,  as 
stated  in  the  constitution,  is  'to  promote  efficiency 
and  economy  in  Christian  work,  by  the  suppres- 
sion and  extinction  of  superfluous  organizations, 
by  the  occupation  of  destitute  fields,  and  by  the 
concentration  of  the  efforts  of  Christian  people.' 
We  are  to  have  one  mass-meeting  every  year,  in 


I28  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

November,  to  hear  reports  from  the  county  sec- 
retaries, to  read  and  discuss  papers,  and  to  devise 
measures  for  the  prosecution  of  our  work." 

"Laus  Deo!"  exclaimed  the  parson.  "Who 
would  have  believed  it !  Why,  this  is  more  of  a 
miracle  than  your  telephone,  that  has  sprung 
into  being  since  I  went  away.  Gloria  in  excelsis! 
The  unity  of  believers  in  this  commonwealth  is 
no  longer  merely  a  sentiment ;  it  is  a  solid  fact. 
Have  they  heard  of  this  yet  up  in  Massachu- 
setts?" 

"  Oh,  yes,  they  are  talking  about  it  there,  and 
out  West,  too.  The  West,  you  know,  is  a  great 
deal  worse  sect-ridden  than  we  are,  and  sensible 
people  out  there  are  beginning  to  see  that  they 
must  organize  to  protect  themselves  against  the 
nuisance.  A  keen  fellow  from  Dakota,  a  lead- 
ing man  in  one  of  the  churches  out  there,  was  in 
our  bank  the  other  day,  talking  it  over.  'Your 
outlook  committees  may  do  very  well  for  this 
region,'  he  said ;  '  what  we've  got  to  have  is  a 
vigilance  committee.  I  go  in  for  hanging  every 
man  that  proposes  the  second  church  in  a  town 
of  less  than  five  hundred  people.  On  one  of  our 
railroads,  the  other  day,  away  out  on  the  prairie, 
fifty  miles  from  anywhere,  the  surveyor  got  off 
the  train  to  stake  out  a  new  town.  He  drove  four 
stakes  and  went  away  to  eat  his  dinner  by  a 
spring,  and,  bless  my  soul  !  when  he  come  back, 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


129 


there  was  a  church  extension  agent  a-sitting  on 
every  one  o'  those  stakes  —  a  Baptist  on  one  and 
a  Presbyterian  on  another  and  a  Methodist  on 
another  and  a  Congregationalist  on  another. 
They'd  all  come  to  locate  churches  in  the  new 
town.  That's  about  the  way  they  do  it,'  said  my 
friend,  'and  they've  got  to  stop  it.'" 

"  That  will  pass,  for  Dakota,"  laughed  Mr. 
Strong.  "  There  are  facts,  no  doubt,  under  your 
friend's  hyperbole.  But  we  will  trust  that  some- 
thing less  sanguinary  than  a  vigilance  committee 
may  serve  to  restrain  the  rampant  sectarianism 
of  the  West" 

"  Ay,  ay,"  cried  the  banker.  "  A  little  pa- 
tience and  sweet  reasonableness,  and  a  great  deal 
of  pluck  and  perseverance  will  do  the  business. 
Let  people  once  see  how  much  better  and  more 
Christian  is  cooperation  than  competition  and 
conflict,  in  doing  Christian  work,  and  the  battle 
is  won." 

"  I  always  knew  that  the  millennium  was  com- 
ing," said  Mr.  Strong,  slowly,  resting  his  eye  for 
a  moment  on  the  mingled  pearl  and  gold  in  the 
cloudless  sky,  out  of  which  the  sun  had  just  sunk, 
and  then  dropping  it  to  take  in  the  soft,  purple 
haze  of  the  hills  and  the  shining  depths  of  the 
placid  river ;  "  I  always  knew  that  it  was  coming, 
but  I  never  knew  before  just  how  it  was  coming. 
Now  I  see." 
9 


XIII. 

IT  was  a  bright  afternoon  in  early  November ; 
the  keen  west  wind  was  making  a  great  stir 
among  the  tough  brown  leaves  in  the  oak  grove 
near  by,  and  the  prophecy  of  a  sharp  frost  was 
in  the  air,  while  the  Reverend  Theodore  Strong 
and  his  friend  Walter  Franklin  walked  briskly  up 
and  down  the  platform  of  the  railway  station  at 
Potsdam  Junction.  They  were  waiting  for  the 
Southern  Express,  due  in  a  few  minutes,  which 
was  to  carry  them  to  Bradford. 

"  Is  your  programme  ready?"  asked  the 
clergyman. 

"  Substantially,"  answered  the  banker.  "  The 
evening  session  is  to  be  occupied  by  the  address 
of  Dr.  Upson,  followed  by  a  social  reunion  in  the 
parlors  of  the  church." 

"  Upson  presides,  does  he?" 

"  He  does.  Our  rule  is,  you  know,  that  the 
oldest  pastor  in  the  place  where  the  convention  is 
held  shall  take  the  chair  at  the  meetings.  This 
rule  was  adopted  without  thinking  of  the  Meth- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE.  I^I 

odists,  but  it  doesn't  work  badly,  after  all.  This 
is  the  third  annual  convention  of  the  League, 
and  Dr.  Upson  will  be  the  second  presiding  offi- 
cer furnished  by  the  Methodists.  It  is  his  ninth 
year  in  Bradford  —  the  third  year  of  his  second 
term  with  his  present  charge,  and  he  served 
another  church  for  three  years  between  the  two 
terms.  So  he  happens  to  be  the  Bradford  pastor 
longest  in  continuous  service." 

"  I  am  glad  of  it,"  answered  Mr.  Strong.  "  He 
is  a  hearty  and  positive  man ;  he  believes  in  the 
League,  and  he  will  be  sure  to  give  us  a  breezy 
and  stirring  meeting.  But  what  are  we  to  have 
to-morrow  ?  " 

"  Devotional  hour  from  eight  to  nine  ;  reports 
from  county  leagues,  followed  by  conversation, 
for  the  forenoon  session ;  two  papers  read  and 
discussed  at  the  afternoon  session,  and  a  public 
meeting  in  the  evening,  with  three  or  four  short 
speeches." 

"  This  League  gives  you  a  great  deal  of  work, 
old  fellow ;  added  to  all  of  your  other  cares,  it 
must  burden  you  not  a  little.  You  must  not  let 
it  make  you  its  victim." 

"  Oh,  no.  This  is  my  diversion.  I  like  it 
better  than  a  yacht  or  a  stock-farm  ;  it  costs  me 
less  money  and  less  worry  than  Thompson's  fish- 
pond costs  him — and  that  is  his  recreation,  you 
know.  Some  of  our  directors  laugh  a  little  at 


132 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


my  way  of  amusing  myself,  but  the  laugh  is  not 
always  wholly  on  their  side.  I  get  about  as 
much  enjoyment  out  of  my  hobby  as  any  of 
them  gets  out  of  his." 

"  I  believe  you,"  responded  Mr.  Strong, 
heartily.  "  I  have  often  thought  that  business 
men  might  find  in  philanthropic  enterprises  of 
one  sort  or  another  not  less  diversion  and  more 
wholesome  enjoyment  than  they  derive  from 
their  various  expensive  relaxations.  But  there's 
the  whistle." 

In  a  few  moments  the  train  stopped  at  the 
junction.  At  the  broad  window  of  one  of  the 
palace  cars  sat  a  ruddy- faced  gentleman,  in  a 
loose  gray  traveling  suit,  looking  out  at  the 
group  of  passengers  and  gazers  on  the  platform. 
His  eye  fell  on  the  parson,  and  instantly  he 
raised  the  window  and  shouted  : 

"  Ho,  there,  my  friend  !  " 

Mr.   Strong's   eye  was   lifted   to  the   window, 
and  he  answered  the  salutation  by  springing  to 
the  platform  of  the  car.     Franklin  followed  him 
The  stranger  met  him  at  the  door  and  greeted 
him  warmly. 

"  Bless  my  soul !  "  he  cried,  "  this  is  indeed 
an  unexpected  pleasure.  I  wondered  much, 
on  my  way  over,  whether  I  should  see  you  ; 
but  I  had  not  your  address,  and  did  not  know 
where  to  look  for  you  in  all  this  vast  coun- 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


133 


try.  You  remember  how  unexpected  was  our 
parting  ?  " 

"  I  remember  well,"  replied  the  parson,  heartily. 
"  This  meeting  is  just  as  unexpected,  and  far 
more  welcome.  But  allow  me  to  introduce  my 
friend,  Mr.  Franklin.  This  is  Mr.  Thornton,  an 
English  gentleman  with  whom  I  journeyed  from 
Acre  to  Damascus." 

"  And  for  whom,"  interrupted  the  stranger, 
"  you  so  kindly  cared  when  he  was  prostrated 
by  the  heat.  I  owe  much  to  your  friend,  Mr. 
Franklin." 

"  So  do  many  of  us,"  answered  the  banker, 
sententiously. 

"  But  when  did  you  arrive  on  these  shores  ?  " 
asked  the  parson. 

"  The  day  before  yesterday." 

"  Is  it  your  first  visit  to  America  ?  " 

"  It  is  the  first." 

"  And  how  far  are  you  going  on  this  train  ?  " 

"  Only  to  Bradford.  It  is  the  next  station,  I 
believe." 

"  It  is,  and  it  is  our  destination  also." 

"  Good  !  " 

The  Englishman  paused  a  moment,  and  then 
said : 

"  I  am  on  my  way  to  a  convention  in  that  city 
of  what  is  called  the  Christian  League.  You 
know  of  it,  I  dare  say." 


134 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


"  Oh,  yes  ;  Mr.  Franklin,  here,  is  the  father  of 
it." 

"  Bless  my  soul !  This  is  Mr.  Walter  Frank- 
lin !  and  you  are  the  Rev.  TJieodore  Strong ! 
Well,  well !  I  have  often  wondered,  as  I  read 
in  the  English  papers  the  doings  of  the  club, 
whether  my  sometime-friend  in  Damascus  could 
be  the  Mr.  Strong  of  New  Albion.  The  name 
was  the  same,  but  I  hardly  thought  it  the  same 
man.  This  doubles  the  delight  of  the  meeting. 
And  you,  sir,"  turning  to  Mr.  Franklin,  "  are 
to  be  profoundly  congratulated.  The  Christian 
League  is  a  child  of  which  a  man  has  a  right 
to  be  proud." 

"  Oh,  that  is  Strong's  extravagance,"  pro- 
tested Franklin.  "  The  Christian  League,  un- 
like the  Corinthian  Church,  has  many  fathers.  I 
am  only  serving  it  as  a  sort  of  dry  nurse  for  the 
time  being." 

"  We  know  all  about  that !  "  exclaimed  the 
Englishman.  "  The  history  of  the  League  is 
quite  familiar  to  many  on  the  other  side  of  the 
sea.  As  good  luck  would  have  it,  I  saw  the  an- 
nouncement of  your  convention  in  one  of  the 
New  York  newspapers  yesterday,  and  at  once 
resolved  to  be  present.  Are  you  the  president 
of  the  League  ?  " 

"  No  ;  the  League  has  no  officers,  save  a  busi- 
ness committee  appointed  at  each  meeting  to 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  ^ 

make  arrangements  for  the  next.  We  pass  no 
votes  and  keep  no  records.  We  meet  simply  for 
conference  and  discussion.  I  have  served,  thus 
far,  as  the  secretary  of  the  Business  Committee  ; 
they  have  done  me  the  honor  to  re-appoint  me 
year  by  year;  that  is  the  only  office  I  hold." 

"  And  that,"  interposed  Mr.  Strong,  "  is  no 
sinecure,  as  you  may  guess.  The  prosperity  of 
the  League  is  largely  due  to  the  abundant  and 
gratuitous  labors  of  my  friend.  That  will  be 
plain  to  you  before  the  meeting  is  ended.  But 
here  we  are  at  Bradford." 

A  delegation  from  the  Bradford  League  was 
at  the  station  to  receive  them,  and  the  English- 
man, protesting,  was  carried  off  by  his  friends  to 
their  lodgings. 

At  seven  o'clock,  when  the  three  appeared  at 
the  door  of  the  spacious  social  parlors  of  the 
Summerfield  Methodist  Church,  where  the  meet- 
ing was  to  be  held,  they  found  some  scores  of 
gentlemen  and  ladies  gathered  in  groups,  and 
filling  the  room  with  the  noise  of  conversation 
and  laughter.  Recognitions,  greetings,  intro- 
ductions, showed  that  these  were  delegates  to  the 
convention,  who  had  come  from  various  parts  of 
the  State,  who  were  not  altogether  unacquainted, 
and  among  whom  it  was  easy  to  establish  the 
bond  of  a  cordial  fellowship.  Mr.  Franklin  and 
Mr.  Strong  were  quickly  surrounded  and  warmly 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

welcomed.  To  extricate  Mr.  Thornton  from  the 
throng  that  pressed  around  them,  Mr.  Strong  put 
him  in  charge  of  Mr.  Stanley,  rector  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Waterport,  who  was  standing 
near. 

"  I  myself  am  a  Churchman,"  said  the  Eng- 
lishman, as  the  two  walked  away  to  a  quiet  nook, 
"  and  the  doings  of  this  League  have  greatly 
interested  me.  There  is  need  enough,  in  our 
country,  of  cooperation  among  Christians,  and  I 
have  come  to  this  meeting  to  see  whether  its 
methods  would  be  at  all  practicable  in  England." 

"  I  do  not  know  how  that  would  be,"  answered 
the  rector  ;  but  I  can  think  of  no  reason  why 
they  would  not  work  with  you  as  well  as  with 
us.  'Sweetness  and  light'  are  the  only  weapons 
of  our  warfare  ;  if  your  arsenals  are  not  full  of 
these,  one  of  your  countrymen  is  not  to  blame. 
We  disseminate  information  ;  we  bring  Christian 
people  of  all  names  together  to  talk  about  the 
work  in  which  they  are  all  engaged  ;  we  try 
to  promote  unity  and  good-will  among  them. 
Such  methods  as  these  ought  to  be  feasible  in 
England." 

"They  ought  to  be,  indeed,"  replied  Mr. 
Thornton ;  "  but  there  are  so  many  technical 
and  formal  difficulties.  For  example,  there  is 
the  everlasting  fuss  about  orders  ;  how  do  you 
manage  that?" 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


137 


"  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  orders,"  an- 
swered the  clergyman.  "  There  is  no  occasion 
whatever  for  raising  any  such  question.  No- 
body takes  orders  and  nobody  gives  orders.  We 
do  nothing  in  our  clubs,  nor  in  this  League,  as 
ministers  or  as  churches.  We  meet  simply  as 
Christian  neighbors  to  confer  about  our  work 
and  the  best  ways  of  promoting  it." 

"  But  your  genuine  High  Churchman  never 
could  take  part  in  any  such  conferences." 

"  I  don't  know  about  that.  Of  course,  the 
High  Churchman  who  really  thinks  that  these 
religious  societies  of  the  Baptists  and  the  Con- 
gregationalists  and  the  Methodists  are  not  only 
irregular  but  irreligious  bodies,  and  that  they 
ought  to  be  resisted  and  extirpated,  could  not 
have  anything  to  do  with  our  League  ;  but  there 
are  few  High  Churchmen,  I  fancy,  who  ever  go 
as  far  as  that.  I  myself  am  thought,  by  some  of 
my  brethren,  to  be  a  pretty  rigid  Churchman  ; 
but  I  am  quite  ready  to  admit  that  these  other 
religious  bodies  are  doing  efficient  Christian 
work  ;  and  when  such  an  organization  is  occupy- 
ing any  field,  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  peo- 
ple and  helping  them  to  lead  pure  and  upright 
lives,  I  do  not  think  that  Churchmen  are  called 
to  enter  that  field,  to  divide  and  scatter  the  forces 
there  at  work.  It  is  far  better  for  us  to  spend 
our  strength  on  some  destitute  neighborhood.  I 


138 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


cannot  quite  admit  that  these  religious  societies 
are  genuine  churches,  or  that  their  ministers  are 
properly  ordained  ;  but  what  of  that  ?  You  may 
call  them  what  you  will  —  conventicles  or  de- 
bating societies  ;  the  question  is  not  what  name 
they  ought  to  bear,  but  what  they  are  doing  ; 
and  if  your  conventicle  or  your  debating  society 
is  making  men  act  like  Christians,  then  I  think 
we  Churchmen  had  better  not  tear  it  into  pieces, 
that  we  may  build  a  'regularly  organized'  church 
out  of  its  ruins.  There  is  better  business  for  us, 
I  am  sure." 

"  Hear,  hear!"  responded  Mr.  Thornton. 

"  Well,  that  is  all  that  this  League  stands 
for.  It  promotes  comity  and  cooperation  among 
Christians  of  different  names.  It  asks  me  to  do 
nothing  more  than  Archbishop  Tait,  of  Canter- 
bury, the  Primate  of  all  England,  has  done  more 
than  once,  as  you  know.  He  has  repeatedly 
welcomed  and  invited  conferences  with  dissent- 
ers, for  the  more  effectual  prosecution  of  religious 
work." 

"  You  speak  truth,"  assented  the  Englishman. 
"  And  I  can  see  no  reason  why  some  such  meas- 
ures might  not  be  adopted  in  my  own  country. 
Your  League,  as  I  understand  it,  is  only  a  device 
for  generating  and  guiding  public  sentiment." 

"  That  is  all ;  and  this  is  done  simply  by  bring- 
ing Christian  people  together,  putting  the  facts 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


139 


before  them,  and  inducing  them  to  talk  them 
over.  But  the  bell  is  tolling  for  the  evening 
service  ;  let  us  find  seats  in  the  church." 

Dr.  Upson's  opening  address  was  a  spirited 
and  enthusiastic  one,  but  there  is  no  room  for  it 
in  these  chronicles.  After  the  address,  the  re- 
union proceeded,  the  citizens  of  Bradford  being 
present  in  force  to  welcome  the  delegates.  It 
was  delightful  to  witness  the  unconstrained  and 
hearty  manners  of  the  company  ;  nobody  seemed 
to  have  a  burden  on  his  mind  ;  there  were  no 
knots  or  slate- makers  or  wire-pullers;  no  one 
had  a  pet  measure  that  he  wanted  to  put  through 
the  convention  on  the  next  day  ;  no  one  expected 
any  office.  In  all  these  respects  it  was  quite 
unlike  the  preliminary  meetings  of  many  eccle- 
siastical bodies  ;  and  to  this  difference  was  due 
in  part,  no  doubt,  the  excellent  temper  of  the 
members. 

The  morning  prayer -meeting  was  almost 
wholly  devotional.  To  singing  and  prayer,  more 
than  to  speech-making,  the  hour  was  devoted ; 
the  old  hymns  that  express  the  unity  of  the 
Church  were  sung  with  a  wholesome  fervor; 
the  prayers  laid  hold  upon  the  words  of  the  In- 
tercessor, "  that  they  all  may  be  one,"  as  if  they 
really  expected  that  the  answer  would  come. 

Promptly,  at  the  hour  of  nine,  Mr.  Franklin 
called  the  convention  to  order. 


140 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


"  We  are  hampered  by  no  formalities,"  he 
said  ;  "we  are  ready  to  proceed  at  once  to  busi- 
ness. According  to  our  unwritten  rule,  the  duty 
of  presiding  at  this  meeting  falls  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Upson,  in  whose  church  we  meet,  and  he  will 
now  take  the  chair." 

"  The  Business  Committee  recommend,"  said 
the  chairman,  mounting  the  platform,  "that  the 
forenoon  until  half-past  twelve  be  given  to  reports 
from  the  county  committees  and  to  conversation 
about  them  —  fifteen  minutes  to  each  report, 
which  may  be  oral  or  written ;  ten  minutes  to 
the  discussion  of  it.  Of  course,  there  is  no  room 
for  speeches  ;  but  some  of  you  will  want  to  ask 
questions  of  the  persons  reporting,  for  further 
explanation  of  portions  of  their  report.  We 
want  you  to  get  your  questions  into  definite 
shape  before  you  present  them.  A  great  many 
questions  can  be  asked  and  answered  in  ten 
minutes,  if  no  words  are  wasted.  Brother  Dick- 
inson, you  have  the  floor." 

The  secretary  from  Midland  County,  thus  ad- 
dressed, rose  and  began  the  reading  of  his  report, 
which  we  summarize  : 

Of  the  twenty-nine  towns  and  cities  in  the 
county,  twenty-two  have  cooperated  during  the 
last  year  in  the  work  of  the  County  League.  In 
all  the  large  towns  League  clubs  have  been 
formed,  and  in  the  small  towns  the  work  of 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


141 


consolidation  has  been  steadily  advancing.  The 
county  contains  a  population  of  seventy  thou- 
sand. Two  years  ago,  there  were  one  hundred 
and  fourteen  regularly  organized  churches  in  this 
county,  besides  various  missions  and  congrega- 
tions of  a  more  or  less  ephemeral  character.  Of 
these  churches,  forty-one  were  in  the  cities  and 
in  the  towns  with  over  five  thousand  inhabitants ; 
the  remaining  seventy- three  were  in  the  smaller 
towns.  The  large  towns  and  cities  contain  about 
forty-five  thousand  people ;  the  small  towns 
about  twenty-five  thousand.  In  the  large  towns 
and  cities  there  was  about  one  church  to  every 
twelve  hundred  inhabitants ;  in  the  smaller  towns 
there  was  about  ons  to  every  three  hundred  and 
fifty  inhabitants.  Now,  there  are  but  ninety- 
three  churches  in  the  county,  a  reduction  of 
twenty-one  in  the  whole  number.  (Applause.) 
In  the  cities  and  large  towns,  four  churches  have 
been  disbanded,  none  of  which  had  any  other 
than  sectarian  reasons  for  its  existence,  and  eight 
new  ones  have  been  formed,  making  a  gain  of 
four  churches  in  the  denser  populations.  In  the 
small  towns,  twenty-five  churches  have  been  dis- 
banded and  no  new  ones  formed,  so  that  in  these 
sparser  populations  there  is  now  about  one  church 
for  every  five  hundred  persons.  (Applause.) 
Statistics,  so  far  as  procurable,  indicate  that, 
with  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  churches, 


142 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


there  has  been  an  increase  of  from  eight  to  ten 
per  cent,  in  the  number  of  regular  worshipers, 
the  movement  toward  consolidation  having  en- 
listed the  interest  of  many  persons  who  had  pre- 
viously remained  outside  of  all  churches,  quite  a 
number  of  them  being  men  of  intelligence  and 
property,  to  whom  the  sectarian  divisions  had 
always  been  a  stumbling-block. 

In  all  the  towns  where  churches  were  consol- 
idated, a  movement  was  at  once  set  on  foot  to 
establish  mission  services  in  districts  distant  from 
the  church,  and  these  were  generally  well  attended 
and  useful ;  but  several  towns  have  settled  upon 
a  method  which  seems  to  be  more  successful.  It 
is  that  of  bringing  the  people  to  the  central  place 
of  worship,  instead  of  sending  the  Gospel  to 
them.  In  the  town  of  Summit,  three  four-horse 
teams,  coming  by  different  roads,  bring  to  church 
every  Sunday  morning  about  fifty  persons,  none 
of  whom  had  previously  been  in  the  habit  of 
attending  church.  The  teams  are  furnished  by 
farmers  in  each  neighborhood ;  the  farm  wagons 
have  been  provided  with  springs  and  comfortable 
seats,  and  the  invitation  has  been  extended  to 
all  the  people  living  on  the  roads  through  which 
these  conveyances  pass  to  make  use  of  them  in 
going  to  church.  Every  house  was  visited,  the 
poorest  people  were  made  to  feel  that  they  would 
be  welcome,  and  in  some  cases  aid  was  quietly 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  143 

given  to  families  who  found  it  difficult  to  provide 
their  children  with  suitable  clothing.  The  result 
is  a  great  increase  in  the  attendance  at  the  church 
in  the  center  of  the  town.  Quite  a  number  of 
the  farmers  who  have  conveyances  of  their  own, 
but  have  never  used  them  on  Sunday,  have  been 
stirred  up  to  attend  church,  and  the  four-horse 
teams  are  accompanied  by  a  goodly  number  of 
smaller  vehicles.  The  old  horse-sheds  in  the 
rear  of  the  meeting-house  are  filled  every  Sun- 
day. This  policy  of  concentration  seems  to  be 
gaining  in  favor  in  Midland  County.  It  is  thought 
to  work  better  than  the  plan  of  holding  many 
small  meetings  in  the  separate  neighborhoods. 
The  school-houses  are  not  always  comfortable ; 
the  lights  are  dim,  the  singing  drags,  the  attend- 
ance in  each  place  is  small.  The  central  church, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  commodious  and  cheerful ; 
there  is  an  organ  or  some  other  instrument,  and 
a  choir  to  lead  the  singing ;  and  the  greatly  in- 
creased attendance  doubles  the  interest  and  en- 
thusiasm of  the  auditors,  stimulates  the  preacher 
to  do  his  best,  and  increases  the  moral  effect  of 
the  whole  service.  Instead  of  distributing  the 
broken  meats  of  the  Gospel-feast  to  the  people 
in  the  out-districts,  the  people  themselves  are 
brought  to  the  first  table  and  enjoy  the  best  that 
the  house  affords.  This  tends  wonderfully  to 
strengthen  the  feeling  of  community  between 


144 


THE   CHRISTIAN-    LEAGUE 


different  parts  of  the  town,  and  to  prevent  local 
jealousies  and  feuds.  It  is  pleasant  and  useful 
for  the  people  of  all  parts  of  the  town  to  meet 
thus  once  a  week.  Those  who  advocate  this 
method  point  also  to  the  fact  that,  in  thus  draw- 
ing the  whole  town  together  at  one  central  place 
of  worship,  they  are  only  restoring  the  practices 
of  the  earlier  days,  when  these  country  towns 
v/ere  much  more  populous  and  prosperous  than 
they  now  are. 

Mr.  Dickinson's  report  was  received  with  a 
round  of  applause. 

"Now  for  your  questions!"  cried  the  chair- 
man. "  The  report  has  occupied  only  thirteen 
minutes ;  you  have  twelve  minutes  for  talk. 
Stand  up,  Brother  Dickinson  !  Go  on,  brethren  !" 

"  Is  there  only  one  church  in  this  town  of 
Summit?" 

"  Only  one.  Five  of  our  country  towns  have 
but  one  church  apiece  !  " 

"  What  kind  of  a  church  is  it  ?  "  The  question 
came  from  two  or  three  parts  of  the  room  at  the 
same  time. 

"  It  is  called,  I  believe,  'The  Church  of  Christ 
in  Summit.'" 

"  Were  there  other  churches  in  the  town 
formerly  ?  " 

"Yes;  there  were  three  churches,  two  years 
ago." 

"  What  has  become  of  the  buildings  ?  " 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  i^ 

"  The  Congregational  Church  stood  in  a  breezy 
place  on  the  top  of  the  highest  hill ;  it  was  bought 
and  remodeled  for  a  summer  boarding-house. 
The  Baptist  Church  is  vacant.  The  Methodist 
Church,  renovated,  is  the  one  now  occupied." 

"  Is  that  old  vacant  Baptist  church  a  pleasant 
object  to  look  upon?"  asked  one  elderly,  quiet- 
faced  man,  who  rose  up  under  the  gallery. 

"  No,  it  is  not,"  answered  Mr.  Dickinson,  with 
some  feeling.  "  It  is  to  me  a  very  melancholy 
spectacle.  Some  of  the  shutters  have  been  torn 
off,  and  many  panes  of  glass  have  been  broken 
from  the  windows.  The  thought  of  what  it  is 
likely  to  become  fills  me  with  pain.  My  boy- 
hood was  spent  in  Summit,  and  I  was  a  worshiper 
in  that  old  church.  I  do  not  like  to  see  it  falling 
into  ruin." 

"  There  is  another  such  vacant  church  in  our 
town,"  continued  the  old  gentleman;  "ours  is  a 
Congregational  church,  the  church  in  which  I 
used  to  worship  when  I  was  a  boy ;  the  church 
where  I  stood  up  to  confess  my  faith  ;  the  church 
where  my  father  served  for  many  years  as  deacon, 
and  from  whose  doors  he  was  carried  out  to  be 
buried.  I  am  glad  of  the  union  which  has 
brought  the  Christians  of  our  town  all  together 
again  as  in  the  olden  time ;  I  praise  God  for  it 
every  day ;  I  am  perfectly  at  home  in  our  new 
union  church,  which  stands  in  the  factory  village; 
but  the  sight  of  that  dear  old  church,  falling  into 

10 


146 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE. 


decay  and  desolation,  is  a  perpetual  sorrow  to 
me.  I  know  of  three  other  towns  in  our  county 
where  the  same  melancholy  spectacle  may  be 
seen.  The  movement  toward  consolidation  leaves 
on  many  of  our  hills  dear  and  venerable  churches 
to  be  hiding-places  for  the  moles  and  the  bats, 
and  sometimes  for  worse  vermin.  Forgive  me 
for  speaking  so  long,  but  I  want  to  raise  this 
question :  What  should  be  done  with  vacant 
churches  ?  " 

The  responses  from  all  parts  of  the  room  showed 
that  the  question  had  touched  the  hearts  of  the 
delegates.  There  was  a  short  pause.  Finally, 
the  chairman  spoke  : 

"  What  answer  do  we  hear  from  Midland 
County  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  question  on  which  I  myself  wish  to  be 
enlightened,"  answered  Mr.  Dickinson. 

"  If  the  convention  will  permit  me  to  prophesy," 
said  the  chairman,  "  I  will  venture  the  prediction 
that  the  report  from  Dunham  County  will  deal 
with  this  subject.  It  may  be  well  to  wait  for  that. 
Indeed,  the  twelve  minutes  are  all  gone  but  one, 
and  I  propose  that  we  devote  that  minute  to 
singing  the  verse : 

"  I  love  thy  Church,  O  God ! 

Her  walls  before  thee  stand, 

Dear  as  the  apple  of  thine  eye, 

And  graven  on  thine  hand." 


XIV. 

A  FTER  the  singing  of  this  stanza  with  deep 
1 .1-  feeling,  Mr.  Hubbard,  the  secretary  of  the 
Dunham  County  League,  began  his  report.  The 
result  had  been  somewhat  less  favorable  than 
those  contained  in  the  preceding  report,  but 
there  was  still  abundant  reason  for  encourage- 
ment in  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  small 
churches,  in  the  great  increase  of  church  attend- 
ance, and  in  the  effectiveness  of  the  new  methods 
of  reaching  the  churchless  classes.  That  part  of 
Mr.  Hubbard's  report  to  which  the  chairman 
referred,  we  reproduce  entire  : 

"We  have  had  troubles  of  our  own  with  vacant 
churches ;  troubles  not  merely  sentimental,  but 
practical.  The  consolidation  in  the  town  of  Lib- 
erty left  the  Methodist  Church  vacant ;  and  it 
was  not  only  an  offense  to  the  eyes  and  a  trouble 
to  the  heart,  as  every  vacant  church  must  be, 
but  it  became  the  haunt  of  tramps,  and  was  a 
scandal  to  the  community.  At  length,  the  good 
people  determined  to  abate  the  nuisance  in  some 

J47 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

way,  and  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  was  called  in 
the  old  church  itself,  one  evening  last  August,  to 
consider  what  should  be  done  with  it.  Among 
those  who  came  to  the  meeting  were  several  city 
people  who  were  spending  the  summer  in  Liberty, 
some  of  whom  were  natives  of  the  town.  Vari- 
ous uses  of  the  old  sanctuary  were  suggested. 
One  of  the  farmers  offered  one  hundred  dollars 
for  it,  to  be  used  as  a  barn  ;  but  the  offer  was  not 
entertained.  One  heroic  brother  wanted  to  burn 
it  up  at  once ;  it  had  outlived  its  usefulness,  he 
said,  and  might  better  be  solemnly  devoted  to 
God  as  a  burnt  offering  than  to  live  to  be  a  dis- 
grace and  a  pest  to  the  community.  This  propo- 
sition pleased  some  of  the  more  enthusiastic 
Christians  and  all  the  boys,  and  it  was  on  the 
point  of  being  adopted,  when  Judge  Forsyth,  of 
New  York,  arose  and  made  a  little  speech. 

"  '  It  seems  to  me,'  he  said,  '  that  you  can  put 
this  church  to  a  better  use.  I  do  not  like  to  see 
valuable  property  destroyed,  and  I  have  personal 
reasons  for  not  wishing  that  the  church  in  which 
I  worshiped  when  a  boy  should  come  to  such  an 
end.  You  need  a  parsonage  and  parish  house,  a 
home  for  your  minister  and  a  social  center  for 
the  community.  This  building  can  be  remodeled 
at  no  great  cost,  so  that  it  shall  serve  this  double 
purpose.  I  have  had  my  friend  Mr.  Garland, 
the  architect,  who  is  here  to-night,  make  a  plan 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


149 


for  this  reconstruction,  which  he  will  show  you. 
The  walls  of  the  building  are  high  enough  to 
admit  of  two  stories ;  the  two  rows  of  windows 
lend  themselves  to  the  plan ;  a  floor  can  be 
thrown  across,  at  about  the  height  of  the  gallery 
floor ;  the  lower  story  can  be  divided  into  rooms 
suitable  for  the  parsonage  ;  above,  you  can  have 
your  parish  hall,  for  lectures,  concerts,  sociables, 
literary  meetings,  etc.,  with  a  room  for  the  library 
which  I  hope  you  will  have  by  and  by,  and  of 
which  your  pastor  should  have  the  care.  Mr. 
Garland  tells  me  that  the  change  in  the  building 
can  be  made  according  to  his  plan  for  about 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  ;  and  I  am  prepared 
to  say  that  if  the  community  will  pledge  five 
hundred  dollars  of  that  amount,  I  will  furnish 
the  rest.' 

"  The  offer  of  Judge  Forsyth  was  received 
with  loud  applause  ;  the  five  hundred  dollars  was 
pledged  at  once,  the  carpenters  were  soon  at 
work,  and  the  pastor  is  now  living  in  his  parson- 
age, while  the  parish  is  rejoicing  in  such  a  place 
of  social  assembly  as  every  country  parish  needs. 
I  have  heard  that  some  other  wealthy  gentlemen, 
natives  of  Liberty,  now  residing  in  Boston,  are 
proposing  to  endow  the  library  at  which  Judge 
Forsyth  hinted,  and  for  which  a  room  was  pro- 
vided in  the  reconstructed  building. 

"Thus  one  of  our  old  churches  has  been  con- 


jijO  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

verted  and  saved  from  ruin  in  its  old  age.  But 
there  was  more  serious  trouble  in  Hector.  There 
it  was  the  old  Baptist  Church  that  was  abandoned, 
and  the  kind  of  tramps  that  it  harbored  were 
mostly  religious  tramps.  Unluckily  there  were 
a  few  members  of  that  church  who  proved 
incorrigible  when  the  union  was  formed  ;  they 
opposed  it  to  the  end,  and  in  the  face  of  an 
overwhelming  public  sentiment  they  continued 
to  oppose  it  after  it  was  an  accomplished  fact. 
These  irreconcilables  were  determined  to  keep 
up  some  kind  of  sectarian  division  in  the  com- 
munity, and  they  used  the  old  church  as  their 
base  of  operations.  The  same  tactics  have  been 
resorted  to  in  other  towns.  A  vacant  church 
acts  on  the  mind  of  your  religious  demagogue  as 
a  powerful  stimulant.  He  wants  to  use  it  for 
schismatic  purposes.  Fie  cannot  rest  till  he  has 
gathered  his  awkward  and  ugly  squad  of  sectaries 
within  its  walls.  Very  likely,  too,  he  will  name 
his  schism  shop  a  '  Union  Church.'  Many  an 
enterprise  of  this  nature,  whose  only  effect  could 
be  to  divide  and  weaken  the  Christian  commu- 
nity, has  been  baptized  with  the  Union  name. 
So  it  was  in  Hector.  First  a  traveling  Baptist 
minister  came  along  and  held  '  Union '  services 
in  the  old  church  for  a  few  weeks ;  but  it  was  not 
long  before  he  discerned  the  true  character  of 
his  supporters  and  turned  his  back  upon  them. 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  l$l 

Their  next  resort  was  a  Congregationalist  from 
Bradford,  who  goeth  about  as  a  roaring  layman, 
seeking  whom  he  may  exhort.  His  excuse  for 
invading  Hector  was  the  lack  of  orthodoxy  in  the 
pulpit  of  the  village  church,  and  he  began  his 
campaign  by  attacking  the  '  loose  doctrines  '  and 
the  heretical  tendencies  of  the  pastor.  But  a 
lawyer  of  Hector,  who  had  some  knowledge  of 
this  heresy  hunter's  business  operations,  made  a 
brief  statement  in  the  county  newspaper,  and  the 
fellow  had  the  grace  to  take  himself  off.  After 
him  came  a  band  of  Adventists,  with  a  series  of 
meetings,  and  after  them  an  itinerant  Univer- 
salist,  who  tried  to  get  up  a  discussion  of  his  pe- 
culiar doctrines,  and  challenged  the  pastor  to  a 
controversy;  but  the  night  after  his  first  meeting 
— a  cold,  winter  night  —  the  stove  was  left  open, 
a  spark  set  it  on  fire,  and  the  old  church  was 
saved  from  being  the  kennel  of  schismatics,  yet 
so  as  by  fire.  But  the  fate  of  this  and  other 
vacant  churches  in  our  county  has  warned  us 
against  leaving  in  our  rear,  as  we  march  toward 
Christian  union,  such  a  fortress  of  schism  as  a 
vacant  church  may  become.  Henceforth  we  are 
determined  to  find  some  good  use  for  every 
church  that  is  vacated ;  it  might  far  better  be 
devoted  to  secular  uses  than  be  left  to  become  a 
sanctuary  for  the  bats  or  a  den  for  tramps  or 
religious  demagogues." 


1^2  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

After  Mr.  Hubbard's  report  was  concluded,  a 
delegate  rose  and  asked,  timidly: 

"  May  I  tell  what  we  did  with  our  two  old 
churches  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  answered  the  chairman. 

"We  sold  them." 

"  For  what  uses  ?  "  inquired  half  a  dozen  at 
once. 

"  One  was  bought  by  the  town  for  a  school, 
the  other  by  a  physician  for  a  sanitarium  and 
boarding-house." 

"  How  much  did  you  get  for  them  ?  "  demanded 
some  speculative  disciple. 

"  Five  thousand  dollars  for  the  two." 

"What  did  you  do  with  the  money?"  came  in 
several  voices. 

"  We  invested  it  in  a  fund  for  the  benefit  of  the 
church." 

"How  long  ago  was  that?"  It  was  Mr. 
Franklin  who  asked  this  question. 

"Two  years  ago  last  spring." 

"  So  you  have  had  the  benefit  of  this  fund 
now  two  years.  How  do  you  thrive  under  it  ?  " 
continued  Mr.  Franklin. 

"  At  first,  we  thought  ourselves  very  rich ; 
but  when  we  came  to  figure  up  our  income,  we 
found  that  it  had  fallen  off  considerably.  The 
year  before,  we  had  raised  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
with  no  difficulty;  the  interest  on  our  fund  re- 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


'53 


duced  the  amount  about  three  hundred  dollars, 
but  it  was  twice  as  hard  to  raise  twelve  hundred 
dollars  that  year  as  it  had  been  to  raise  fifteen 
hundred  the  year  before.  A  good  share  of  our 
parishioners  fell  back  upon  that  fund  and  shut 
up  their  purses  with  a  snap,  and  would  not  give 
anything.  Last  year,  it  was  still  worse ;  we  began 
to  be  afraid  that  we  should  not  be  able  to  raise  a 
thousand  dollars.  Finally,  we  called  a  meeting 
and  determined  to  get  rid  of  that  millstone.  By 
a  vote  of  two  to  one  we  turned  the  money  over 
to  the  town  to  be  used  in  endowing  a  free  library, 
and  then  we  sang  the  doxology." 

Laughter  and  cheers  greeted  this  illuminating 
speech. 

"  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear !  " 
cries  Dr.  Upson.  "  A  bank  vault  is  a  poor  place 
for  a  church  of  Christ  to  lay  up  its  treasure  in. 
We  will  now  hear  from  Ridgefield  County. 
Brother  Harlan,  you  have  the  floor." 

It  was  evident  that  Brother  Harlan  was  a 
character.  A  man  in  plain  farmer's  clothes,  with 
keen  gray  eyes  glancing  out  from  beneath  beet- 
ling brows,  a  shock  of  refractory  red  hair,  and  a 
close-cropped  beard  of  the  same  color,  ambled 
to  the  front  and  began  deliberately : 

"  I'm  not  the  secretary  of  our  county,"  he  said. 
"  Captain  Thomas  is  sick,  and  he  sent  word  to 
me  day  before  yesterday  that  I  must  come  here 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

and  report  for  him.  I  haven't  a  word  written, 
and  I  shall  not  begin  to  tell  all  that  ought  to  be 
told  about  the  work  in  our  county;  but  I'll  give 
a  few  facts  that  have  come  under  my  own  eye.  I 
don't  know  much  about  the  figures,  but  I  know 
that  quite  a  lot  of  sickly  churches  have  been 
killed  off.  And  that's  the  right  way  to  serve 
'em.  We  thin  out  a  hill  o'  corn  that  has  seven 
or  eight  stalks  when  there  isn't  room  for  more 
than  three  or  four,  and  get  a  better  crop  for  doin' 
it.  When  churches  come  up  too  thick  around 
here  on  these  hills,  they've  got  to  be  thinned  out 
in  the  same  way.  Poor  husbandry,  I  calc'late, 
to  keep  diggin'  round  'em  and  manurin'  'em  with 
home  missionary  money,  when  there's  no  more 
chance  of  gettin'  a  crop  from  'em  than  there  is 
from  a  patch  o*  corn  that's  sowed  broadcast. 

"  In  the  town  where  I  live,  in  Ridgefield 
County,  we  had  three  churches  for  more'n  twenty 
years.  Fifty  years  ago  there  wasn't  but  one, 
and  the  population  was  fifty  per  cent,  larger  then 
than  it  is  now.  Two  years  ago,  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  and  the  Methodists  made  up  their 
minds  to  come  together ;  they  kept  both  meetin' 
houses,  and  the  united  society  worships  in  one 
in  the  mornin'  and  in  the  other  in  the  evenin', 
and  that  accommodates  both  ends  of  the  street. 
We  have  a  congregation  a  good  deal  larger  than 
the  two  put  together  used  to  be,  and  we  pay  our 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


155 


minister,  easy  enough,  a  good,  comfortable  salary. 
The  fact  is,  we've  got  a  minister  that  it's  easy 
enough  to  pay.  He's  a  keen-witted,  level-headed 
young  man  who  understands  himself  and  his 
business,  and  knows  something  outside  of  his 
business,  too.  Everybody  likes  him.  He  talks 
to  us  very  plain  in  church ;  it  comes  right  from 
his  heart ;  and  when  he  is  around  among  the 
farmers  he  don't  find  it  hard  to  make  talk  come. 
He  knows  his  Bible  and  he  knows  other  books ; 
but  he  knows  men,  too,  and  cattle  and  sheep  and 
horses, — especially  horses.  He's  got  one  of  the 
likeliest  colts  in  town,  and  he  keeps  his  coat  as 
shiny  as  satin.  The  other  day,  the  parson  was 
sittin'  in  his  buggy  in  front  of  one  of  the  stores, 
talking  with  half  a  dozen  men,  when  along  came 
old  Sime  Harrison,  who  lives  up  at  Scrabbletown. 
Sime's  one  of  those  terrible  slovenly  critters  that 
keeps  everything  at  loose  ends  around  his  farm, 
is  always  behindhand  with  his  work,  and  never 
pays  his  debts ;  but  because  he  is  so  loose  in 
everything  else,  he  tries  to  even  things  up  by 
being  mortal  strict  in  his  religious  notions.  He 
generally  drives  his  horses  tandem,  because  he 
never  gets  ready  to  rig  a  whiffletree  and  a  pole. 
It's  a  city  fashion,  I  understand  ;  but  we  farmers 
consider  it  a  dreadfully  shiftless  way  to  hitch  up 
horses.  So  Sime  comes  a  drivin'  up  his  two  old 
nags  afore  his  buckboard,  and  he  stops  when 


!^6  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

he  gets  opposite  the  parson,  and  leanin'  over 
toward  him  in  a  kind  o'  confidential  way,  he 
says :  '  Brother  Hall,  do  you  think  the  Tostle 
Paul  ever  druv  a  fast  hoss  ?  '  '  Don't  know  about 
that,'  answers  the  parson,  quicker'n  lightnin', 
'  but  I'm  pretty  sure  he  never  drove  two  horses 
tandem.'  You'd  ought  to  have  heard  them  men 
shout.  Sime  didn't  want  to  know  any  more 
about  the  Tostle  Paul,  and  he  druv  right  on. 
But  that's  the  sort  o'  man  our  minister  is.  Smart 
as  a  whip,  I  can  tell  you  !  He  stands  square  on 
his  feet,  looks  you  right  in  the  eye,  and  com- 
mands the  respect  of  everybody.  It's  a  great 
thing  for  the  town,  and  especially  for  our  boys 
who  are  growin'  up,  to  have  a  man  like  that 
around  among  us, —  a  gentleman,  a  scholar,  a 
man  of  sense  and  self-respect,  a  man  who  pays 
his  debts,  and  has  no  need  to  beg  of  anybody 
or  to  be  beholden  to  anybody  for  his  livin'.  It 
makes  religion  seem  a  sensible  and  respectable 
sort  of  thing. 

"  One  Sunday  evenin'  last  spring,  we  had  a 
Sunday-school  concert,  and  our  pastor  went 
down  to  the  West  village  to  preach  to  them, 
because  they  hadn't  any  minister.  The  next  day 
I  was  down  there,  and  everybody  was  talkin' 
about  his  sermon.  '  Made  it  jest  as  plain  as 
daylight,'  they  said.  '  Can't  help  listenin'  to 
him.'  '  Understood  every  word  he  said.'  '  Wish 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 

I  could  hear  such  preachin'  every  Sunday,'  says 
Deacon  Chapin.  '  Well,  what's  to  hinder  you 
hearin'  it  ?  '  says  I.  '  What  do  you  mean  ?  '  says 
he.  '  I'll  tell  you  what  I  mean,'  says  I.  '  It's 
two  mile  and  a  half  to  the  old  church  in  the  East 
village.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  lived  half  a  mile 
further  west  than  you  do,  and  our  folks  was 
always  at  the  old  church  every  Sunday,  rain  or 
shine,  and  so  was  quite  a  number  of  families 
livin'  down  this  way.  It  isn't  any  further  now'n 
was  then,  and  there's  better  roads.' 

" '  But  there's  a  good  many  families  in  this 
neighborhood  that  haven't  teams,'  he  said. 

"  '  Well,  then,  git  up  one  or  two  gig-teams  and 
bring  'em.' 

"  'It'd  cost  too  much.' 

V  '  Would  it  ?  How  much  does  it  cost  you  a 
year  to  keep  your  church  goin'  ? ' 

" '  Well,  about  six  hundred  dollars  is  the 
least.' 

"  '  And  how  many  do  you  git  to  church  ?  ' 

"  '  Forty  or  fifty,  ginerally.' 

"  '  Yes  ;  and  a  good  share  of  them  has  teams  of 
their  own.  Now  you  can  arrange  for  teams  that 
wont  cost  you  more'n  five  dollars  a  Sunday, 
that'll  take  at  least  thirty  persons  up  to  the  old 
church.  I'm  an  old  stager,  and  I'd  like  to  take 
the  contract  of  transportin'  thirty  from  the  West 
village  to  the  East  village  and  back  ag'in  every 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Sunday  for  five  dollars.  The  rest  can  go  with 
their  own  teams.  You  wont  want  to  get  your 
preachin'  for  nothin'  up  there,  of  course ;  but 
you  can  pay  for  that  and  pay  the  expense  of 
transportation,  and  then  save  money  on  what 
it  costs  you  to  keep  up  this  church.  Besides, 
you  can  have  first-class  preachin'  every  Sunday, 
instead  of  four  hundred  and  forty-fourth  class.' 

"  '  But  there  will  be  many  Sundays,'  said  the 
Deacon,  '  that  it  will  be  stormy,  or  the  roads 
would  be  bad  and  we  couldn't  go  so  far.' 

"  '  There  might  be  five  or  six  Sundays  every 
year,'  I  answered,  '  when  the  roads  would  be 
bad.  But  how  many  Sundays  in  a  year  on  the 
average  are  you  out  of  preachin'  on  account  of 
a  vacancy  in  your  pulpit  ?' 

"  The  Deacon  looked  over  the  church  books 
and  found  that  for  the  last  five  years  the  pulpit 
of  the  church  in  the  West  village  had  been 
without  a  supply  fifty-five  Sundays  in  all  —  just 
eleven  Sundays  a  year  on  the  average.  He 
agreed  with  me  right  off  that  there  would  not  be 
so  many  Sundays  as  that  in  the  year  when  the 
roads  between  the  two  villages  would  be  too 
heavy  for  travelin'.  And  the  result  of  our  talk 
was  that  a  meetin'  of  the  people  in  the  West 
village  was  held,  the  matter  was  talked  up,  a  sub- 
scription to  pay  for  teams  was  started,  and  now 
we  bring  the  West  villagers  to  church  and  Sun- 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


159 


day-school  at  the  East  village  every  Sunday, 
and  git  more  of  'em  than  ever  went  to  their  own 
church.  They  keep  up  their  own  Sunday-school, 
too,  in  the  afternoon,  and  their  prayer-meetin'  in 
the  evenin',  but  they  like  the  present  arrange- 
ment, and  wouldn't  on  any  account  go  back  to 
the  old  plan. 

"  In  several  other  towns  of  our  county  the  same 
thing,  or  something  very  much  like  it,  has  been 
done.  We  have  seen  the  tribes  that  have  been 
scattered  abroad  return  with  singin'  unto  Zion. 
We  auit  exactly  standin  in  the  old  ways,  as  the 
prophet  says,  but  we're  walkin'  in  'em,  or,  rather, 
drivin'  over  'em  up  to  Jerusalem ;  and  it  seems 
good  to  have  the  people  of  the  whole  town  come 
together  with  one  accord  in  one  place,  just  as 
they  did  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  We've  had 
some  Pentecosts  of  our  own,  too,  in  Ridgefield 
County,  and  I  should  like  mightily  to  tell  you 
all  about 'em;  but  I've  kept  my  eye  on  the  clock, 
and  know  that  my  time's  up." 

Brother  Harlan's  shrewd  harangue  was  re- 
ceived with  much  laughter  and  applause,  and  as 
soon  as  it  was  ended  the  questions  began. 

"  How  large  is  your  congregation  on  Sunday 
morning  ?  " 

"  Last  Sunday  I  counted  three  hundred  and 
eighty-nine.  It  was  not  above  the  average." 

"  That  is    a   large   congregation,"   interposes 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Dr.  Upson.  "  Few  of  those  in  the  cities  are  so 
large." 

"  How  many  do  you  think  would  have  been 
found  in  the  three  churches  on  a  pleasant  Sunday, 
before  the  consolidation  ?  " 

"  Not  above  three  hundred." 

"Is  your  church  entirely  self-supporting?" 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Do  your  people  contribute  to  any  missionary 
or  benevolent  societies  ?  " 

"  Last  year  we  gave  over  three  hundred 
dollars." 

"  How  do  you  manage  that  ?  " 

"We  take  a  collection  every  month.  Several  of 
these  collections  are  for  Union  societies.  When 
we  take  up  our  collection  for  foreign  missions  or 
home  missions,  or  the  publication  cause,  we  dis- 
tribute envelopes  in  the  pews,  and  each  person 
puts  his  amount  into  an  envelope,  and  writes  on 
it  the  name  of  the  society  to  which  he  wants  it 
to  go.  If  he  is  a  Congregationalist,  he  sends  his 
foreign  missionary  money  to  the  American  Board ; 
if  he  is  a  Methodist,  he  sends  it  to  the  Methodist 
Board  of  Missions,  and  so  on.  The  treasurer 
gathers  up  the  amounts  and  forwards  them  to 
the  right  places,  and  reports  to  the  church  the 
amount  of  the  collection  and  the  sum  remitted 
to  each  of  the  societies.  At  our  monthly  mis- 
sionary meeting,  we  hear  from  the  missions  of  all 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  IgI 

the  denominations,  and  know  a  great  deal  more 
about  what  is  going  on  in  the  mission  field  than 
we  used  to  know  when  we  heard  only  from  the 
societies  of  one  denomination." 

"  How  do  your  contributions  in  envelopes 
compare  with  those  in  cash  ?  " 

"  They're  twice  as  big  ;  partly  because  there's 
a  little  strife  to  see  which  society  shall  get  the 
most,  and  partly  because  folks  don't  like  to  put 
a  cent  into  an  envelope." 

Brother  Harlan  stepped  down  from  the  plat- 
form amid  applause  and  a  buzz  of  jocose  com- 
ment. His  report,  informal  and  jocose  as  it 
was,  had  contained  more  meat  than  any  that 
preceded  it. 


1 1 


XV. 

THE  next  to  take  the  floor  was  Mr.  Greene, 
the  secretary  from  Bradford  County.  In 
this  county  are  several  cities  and  large  towns, 
and  the  report  was  expected  to  deal  not  only 
with  the  problem  of  consolidating  the  small 
churches,  but  also  with  the  important  question 
of  evangelization  and  charity  presented  by  the 
urban  populations.  Bradford  County  contains 
New  Albion,  and  was  the  home  of  the  Christian 
League.  Concerning  the  beginnings  of  the 
Union  movement  in  some  of  the  towns  of  this 
county,  the  readers  of  this  history  are  fully 
informed. 

In  three  of  these  towns,  Mr.  Greene's  report 
showed  that  serious  difficulties  had  been  encoun- 
tered. In  Scantico,  a  few  strenuous  Methodists, 
egged  on,  as  some  said,  by  the  presiding  elder  of 
the  district,  determined,  after  the  Union  church 
had  been  in  successful  operation  for  about  a  year, 
to  reestablish  sectarian  worship.  Accordingly 

they  demanded,  in  the  name  of  the  Methodist 
162 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  ^3 

Conference,  the  meeting-house  which  had  for- 
merly belonged"  to  them,  and  which  had  been 
occupied  for  evening  services  by  the  united 
church.  They  asked  for  a  minister;  and  a  Metho- 
dist clergyman,  partly  disabled  by  ill-health,  who 
was  sojourning  for  the  year  in  Bradford,  was  sent 
over  to  supply  their  pulpit.  Unfortunately  for 
their  purposes,  this  clergyman  was  a  man  of 
broad  views  and  generous  temper,  and  he  soon 
discovered  the  state  of  the  public  mind  in  Scan- 
tico.  He  called  upon  the  pastor  of  the  united 
church  and  proposed  Union  services  in  the 
Methodist  Church  in  the  evening,  and  in  the 
other  church  in  the  morning,  so  that  things  went 
on  for  a  few  weeks  much  as  before,  the  only  dif- 
ference being  that  there  were  two  ministers  in- 
stead of  one.  This  was  not  exactly  what  his 
supporters  had  bargained  for,  but  he  was  a  man 
of  so  much  intelligence  and  strength  of  character 
that  they  did  not  like  to  quarrel  with  him  ;  and 
besides,  it  was  somewhat  ungracious  to  object  to 
Union  meetings.  At  length,  he  told  the  united 
congregation,  one  Sunday  evening,  that  his  work 
among  them  was  finished,  and  that  he  should 
return  the  next  day  to  Bradford ;  that  Scantico 
needed  but  one  church,  and  that  one  minister 
was  better  than  two ;  that  his  brother  Thomas, 
of  the  Union  church,  was  a  good  enough  Metho- 
dist for  him ;  that  he  should  file  with  the  presid- 


1 64 

ing  elder  his  protest  against  the  reestablishment 
of  Methodist  worship  in  Scantico,  and,  if  it  be- 
came necessary,  should  carry  the  matter  before 
the  Conference  at  its  next  session ;  that  the 
Methodist  Church  should  not  be  made,  if  he 
could  help  it,  an  instrument  for  creating  or  per- 
petuating destructive  schisms  in  the  Church  of 
Christ.  This  bold  movement  completely  dis- 
comfited the  Methodist  sectarians,  and  they 
abandoned  their  scheme  without  a  struggle. 

In  Tuckerton,  it  was  a  Congregational  clique 
that  made  the  trouble.  In  that  town  there  had 
been  two  Congregational  churches,  the  division 
arising  out  of  a  feud  about  a  choir,  and  continu- 
ing for  many  years,  until  the  Union  church  was 
formed.  The  Second  Congregational  Church 
stood  in  a  small  settlement  dubbed  by  the  Cen- 
tral villagers  Potluck,  in  revenge  for  which  the 
Potluckians  persisted  in  applying  to  Tuckerton 
proper  the  contemptuous  sobriquet  of  Kittleville. 
Much  local  warfare,  of  a  nature  not  very  sanguin- 
ary, had  been  waged  between  these  two  precincts 
from  time  immemorial,  and  it  was  considered  a 
sure  sign  of  the  millennium  when  they  agreed  to 
come  together  and  form  a  Union  church.  But  this 
millennium  did  not  last  a  thousand  years,  prob- 
ably because  the  devil  was  not  chained.  He 
made  his  appearance  in  Potluck  in  the  form  of  a 
Congregational  minister  of  dubious  credentials, 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  jgc; 

who  proposed  to  hold  services  in  the  church  in 
that  place,  and  by  his  unction  and  plausible 
speech  contrived  to  deceive  even  the  elect.  To 
the  ultra  orthodox  he  suggested  the  danger  of 
allowing  their  children  to  be  trained  up  without 
any  knowledge  of  the  "  doctrines  of  the  fathers  " ; 
to  those  in  whose  breasts  local  pride  burned 
most  fiercely,  he  urged  the  ignominy  of  allowing 
Potluck  to  become  "  a  mere  suburb  of  Kittle- 
ville."  Plying  both  these  arguments  indus- 
triously, he  soon  had  quite  a  following  at  his 
heels,  and  almost  before  any  one  knew  of  it 
services  were  in  full  blast  again  in  the  Second 
Congregational  Church.  But  a  letter  was  written 
to  some  of  the  leading  Congregationalists  in 
Bradford  and  New  Albion,  and  a  strong  delega- 
tion from  the  League  clubs  of  those  cities  went 
down  to  Potluck,  called  together  the  leading 
Congregationalists  of  that  precinct,  assured  them 
that  they  would  fail  of  obtaining  the  Home  Mis- 
sionary aid  on  which  they  had  depended  for  the 
support  of  their  separate  service,  showed  them 
the  folly  of  the  course  into  which  they  had 
been  led,  gave  them  some  bits  of  the  history 
of  the  man  who  had  wormed  himself  into  their 
confidence,  and  succeeded  in  bringing  back 
Potluck  from  its  wanderings,  and  in  repairing 
once  more  the  breach  in  the  walls  of  the  Tuck- 
erton  Zion. 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

In  several  other  towns  where  Union  move- 
ments had  been  set  on  foot,  there  had  been  out- 
breaks of  a  sectarian  nature,  some  of  which  had 
not  yet  been  subdued.  The  spirit  of  sect,  like 
the  Judaizing  temper  among  the  early  Christians, 
was  continually  showing  itself:  men  who  had 
been  bred  in  an  intense  sectarianism,  who  had 
been  taught  from  their  cradles  to  put  the  in- 
terests of  sect  above  the  interests  of  Chris- 
tianity, could  not  all  at  once  quench  their 
unholy  zeal  and  stop  seeking,  first,  the  kingdom 
of  Methodism,  or  of  Episcopacy,  or  of  Con- 
gregationalism, and  its  righteousness  ;  neverthe- 
less, the  broader  sentiment  and  wiser  methods 
of  a  genuine  Christianity  were  all  the  while 
gaining  strength,  and  the  partisans  of  a  narrow 
ecclesiasticism  knew  that  they  were  fighting  a 
losing  battle.  In  quelling  these  sectarian  out- 
breaks, the  County  League  had  been  of  the  great- 
est service.  Whenever  any  attempt  had  been 
made  to  form  a  new  church  or  revive  an  old  one 
in  a  town  where  the  churches  had  been  consoli- 
dated, the  Outlook  Committee,  consisting  of  a 
representative  of  each  of  the  denominations,  had 
proceeded  immediately  to  the  spot,  and  had 
made  a  full  examination  of  the  circumstances, 
publishing  the  facts  in  the  principal  newspapers 
of  the  county,  and  making  full  reports  of  them 
at  the  next  meeting  of  the  League.  These  tern- 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


I67 


perate  but  truthful  representations  generally 
brought  a  considerable  pressure'of  public  opinion 
to  bear  at  once  upon  the  offending  schismatics ; 
if  that  did  not  suffice,  a  committee,  composed 
wholly  of  members  of  the  sect  to  which  they 
belonged,  appointed  by  the  County  League  at 
its  next  meeting  to  remonstrate  with  them  and 
bring  them  to  a  better  mind,  sometimes  had  the 
desired  effect.  At  all  events,  this  County  League, 
formed  in  the  interests  of  Christian  cooperation, 
concentrating  and  expressing  all  the  most  Chris- 
tian sentiment  of  the  county,  keeping  the  eyes 
of  its  Outlook  Committee  on  all  the  places  where 
admonition  or  encouragement  was  needed,  and 
swift  to  drag  into  the  light  of  day  all  the  hidden 
things  of  darkness  that  the  spirit  of  sect  lay  in 
wait  to  do,  was  a  mighty  help  in  promoting  the 
unity  of  believers  and  in  preventing  the  reactions 
that  were  in  danger  of  occurring  here  and  there. 

Mr.  Greene's  report,  thus  summarized,  was 
given  extemporaneously,  and,  like  many  another 
layman,  he  used  up  his  time  before  finishing  what 
he  had  to  say.  In  the  midst  of  his  speech  he  was 
interrupted  by  the  chairman  : 

"Time's  up,  Brother  Greene.  I  know  what 
you  have  left  unsaid,  and  how  important  it  is 
that  you  have  a  chance  to  say  it.  Perhaps 
it  may  be  brought  out  in  the  conversation. 
Let  me  suggest  to  the  convention  that  ques- 


CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

tions  be  asked  about  Christian  League  work  in 
Bradford." 

"That  is  just  what  I  want  to  hear,"  spoke  up 
Mr.  Strong.  "  I  know  something  about  it,  but 
I  want  to  know  more  definitely.  Will  Mr. 
Greene  tell  us  something  of  the  charitable  work 
of  Bradford  ?  " 

"  Thank  you  !  "  was  the  answer  of  the  secre- 
tary. "  I  should  have  greatly  failed  of  my  duty 
if  I  had  not  brought  something  before  the 
convention  respecting  this  work.  Our  Charity 
Organization  is  an  enterprise  of  the  greatest 
importance,  and  it  is  the  child  of  the  Christian 
League  Club  of  Bradford." 

"What  is  the  Christian  League  Club  of  Brad- 
ford ?  "  asked  Mr.  Strong. 

"  It  consists  of  the  minister  and  one  layman 
from  each  of  the  Protestant  churches  in  the  city. 
The  organization  is  similar  to  that  in  New  Al- 
bion, except  that  we  have  fewer  laymen.  With 
three  laymen  from  each  church,  our  club  would 
be  unwieldy." 

"  Go  on  with  your  story." 

"  When  the  club  first  faced  the  problem  of 
poverty  and  pauperism,  it  found  five  charitable 
societies  at  work  in  the  city,  rivals  and  competi- 
tors, all  striving  to  see  which  could  '  relieve ' 
the  largest  number  of  paupers,  and  collect  and 
disburse  the  most  money.  Of  course,  they  dis- 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 

bursed  a  deal  of  money,  and  of  course  pauperism 
was  rapidly  increasing.  To  secure  cooperation 
among  them  seemed  a  hopeless  task.  At  length, 
the  club  determined  to  solve  the  difficulty  by 
organizing  another  society,  which  should  be 
pledged  to  give  no  material  aid  whatever,  but  to 
work  wholly  by  moral  and  industrial  methods. 
A  system  of  registration  was  adopted,  by  which 
the  names  of  all  persons  receiving  charity  were 
recorded,  with  such  information  as  could  be 
gathered  concerning  each  of  them.  The  other 
societies  and  their  churches  were  all  invited  to 
send  to  this  bureau  the  names  of  all  the  persons 
relieved  by  them ;  and  although  this  was  at  first 
refused  by  some  of  them,  the  measure  was  so 
evidently  necessary  for  the  exposure  of  impost- 
ure that  they  were  obliged  to  adopt  it.  Imme- 
diately, we  were  able  to  notify  the  societies  and 
the  churches  of  many  cases  in  which  the  same 
persons  were  receiving  aid  from  two  or  more  of 
them  at  the  same  time ;  and  they  soon  found  out 
the  value  of  the  bureau  of  registration.  Then  we 
divided  the  whole  city  into  small  districts,  and 
after  much  labor  succeeded  in  securing  a  com- 
petent visitor  for  each  of  these  districts  —  one 
hundred  and  forty-seven  in  all.  The  charitable 
societies  and  the  churches  had  had  but  few  vis- 
itors —  not  a  score  of  them  in  all  the  city.  With 
all  the  money  disbursed  yearly,  very  little  per- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

sonal  care  and  help  had  been  bestowed  on  the 
poor,  and  this  was  the  defect  we  sought  to  sup- 
ply. We  published  a  map  of  the  city,  with  the 
districts  numbered  and  the  name  of  the  visitor  for 
each  district,  and  offered  the  services  of  our  vis- 
itors to  the  charitable  societies  and  the  churches 
for  the  investigation  and  care  of  the  cases  which 
they  were  called  upon  to  relieve.  Some  intelli- 
gence and  conscience  in  the  administration  of 
charity  had  begun  to  be  developed,  and  the  dis- 
pensers of  charity  readily  availed  themselves  of 
our  offer.  Our  visitors  soon  had  their  hands  and 
hearts  full.  They  were  forbidden  to  give  money 
or  food  or  coal  in  any  case,  and  were  enjoined 
never  to  recommend  the  granting  of  such  relief  by 
the  other  societies,  except  in  cases  of  sickness  and 
absolute  disability.  Their  problem  was  to  help 
the  poor  without  giving  them  money  or  subsist- 
ence ;  to  help  them  by  finding  work  for  them, 
by  rousing  them  to  help  themselves,  by  directing 
them  into  more  frugal  and  comfortable  habits  of 
living,  and  by  befriending  them  in  every  possible 
way.  Our  visitors  were  taught  that  this  work  of 
moral  aid  was,  in  the  deepest  sense  of  the  word, 
a  missionary  work ;  that  it  could  not  be  rightly 
done  unless  it  was  inspired  by  a  'genuine  en- 
thusiasm of  humanity ' ;  that  it  needed  for  its 
accomplishment  a  Christly  sympathy  and  ten- 
derness and  tact,  and  a  Christly  courage  and 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  ijl 

patience.  Once  in  two  weeks  we  have  a  meet- 
ing of  all  our  visitors, —  a  conference  meeting,  in 
which  each  one  has  the  privilege  of  giving  his  or 
her  experience  (they  are  mostly  women),  and  of 
asking  counsel  about  any  hard  cases.  I  tell  you, 
brethren,  these  are  the  most  interesting  meetings 
I  ever  attended  in  my  life.  It  would  stir  your 
hearts  to  listen  to  the  stories  told,  and  to  see  with 
what  dauntless  courage  and  what  untiring  pa- 
tience and  what  marvelous  tact  and  tenderness 
these  good  women  are  working  for  the  salvation 
of  the  forlorn,  discouraged,  helpless  creatures  that 
are  placed  in  their  care.  Our  system  does  not 
allow  a  single  visitor  to  have  the  care  of  more 
than  two  families  at  once ;  we  do  not  believe 
that  one  visitor  can,  as  a  rule,  do  justice  to  more 
than  two  families  ;  we  want  them  to  give  to  each 
family  a  great  deal  of  time  and  care  and  personal 
attention  ;  and  the  results  of  this  patient,  loving, 
hand-to-hand  work  among  the  poor  of  our  city 
are  full  of  encouragement." 

"  Don't  you  find  some  cases  that  are  past 
saving?"  some  one  inquired. 

"  We  never  admit  it,"  was  the  answer.  "  There 
are  cases  in  which,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  no 
permanent  improvement  is  made;  but  if  'men 
ought  always  to  pray  and  not  to  faint,'  then 
they  ought  always  to  work  for  those  for  whom 
they  pray,  and  not  to  faint  in  their  endeavors 


1-J2  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

any  more  than  in  their  prayers.  I  always  re- 
member what  Robert  Falconer  said  to  his  father, 
the  wretched  old  drunkard,  '  Father,  you've  got 
to  reform  some  time,  and  you  may  as  well  begin 
now.'  That  is  the  substance  of  what  he  said.  If 
we  had  a  little  more  of  that  sort  of  purpose,  we 
should  save  more  of  the  hard  cases." 

"  How  many  families  have  you  cared  for  dur- 
ing the  last  year?" 

"  More  than  three  hundred." 

"  What  has  been  the  effect  upon  the  disburse- 
ments of  the  charitable  societies  ?" 

"  They  have  been  reduced  about  fifty  per 
cent,  and  everybody  admits  that  there  is  less 
suffering  now  than  there  was  when  the  larger 
sum  was  distributed." 

"  What  is  the  effect  upon  the  morals  of  the 
city?" 

"The  sentences  for  drunkenness  and  petty 
crimes  were  fewer  by  fifteen  per  cent,  last  year 
than  during  the  previous  year." 

"  Do  you  attribute  all  this  to  the  improved 
method  of  charity  ?" 

"  No ;  that  would  not  be  fair.  Other  impor- 
tant agencies  have  contributed  to  this  result.  To 
the  establishment  of  friendly  inns,  quite  as  much 
is  due." 

"  Tell  us  about  them,"  came  in  half  a  dozen 
voices. 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


173 


"My  time  is  up." 

"  Mr.  Greene  may  have  ten  minutes  of  my 
time,"  said  the  secretary  from  Rockbridge 
County.  "  My  report  will  be  largely  a  repeti- 
tion of  what  we  have  heard  already.  This  is 
more  important." 

The  generous  proposition  was  hailed  with  ap- 
plause by  the  convention.  Mr.  Greene  went  on : 

"  Our  club  found,  in  fighting  the  saloons,  that 
it  was  good  tactics  to  borrow  some  of  their 
weapons.  We  were  confronted  by  exactly  the 
same  state  of  things  as  that  which  was  discov- 
ered at  New  Albion,  only  our  city  is  much  larger 
than  New  Albion,  and  therefore  the  perils  were 
greater  and  the  needs  more  urgent.  A  large 
part  of  our  population  is  without  homes.  The 
clerks,  the  operators  in  our  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments, and  the  mechanics,  are  largely  home- 
less. Such  lodgings  as  most  of  them  can  afford 
are  cold  in  winter  and  cheerless  in  all  seasons ; 
it  is  for  warmth,  shelter,  and  companionship, 
more  than  for  drink,  that  many  of  them  resort 
to  the  saloons.  Some  of  them  will  go  to  the 
reading-rooms,  but  many,  and  those  who  are  in 
greatest  peril,  have  no  taste  for  reading.  The  prob- 
lem was  to  provide  safe  places  of  resort  for  this 
class  of  persons.  We  thought  of  a  Young  Men's 
Club,  like  that  of  New  Albion  ;  but  it  seemed 
advisable,  as  our  territory  is  so  large,  to  have 


174 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


several  places  of  this  character  in  different  parts 
of  the  city.  Accordingly,  the  plan  of  establish- 
ing friendly  inns,  or  coffee-houses,  in  suitable 
localities,  was  suggested,  and  a  company  was 
incorporated,  with  a  capital  of  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars, to  prosecute  this  enterprise.  It  was  not 
designed  to  be  a  charity ;  it  was  intended  that 
the  business  should  pay  expenses  from  the  start. 
The  money  was  invested  in  lease  and  fixtures. 
Four  suites  of  rooms,  in  different  quarters  of  the 
city,  were  procured  and  fitted  v/ith  counters, 
tables,  crockery,  cooking  ranges,  and  furniture, 
and  comfortable  chairs ;  the  intention  was  that 
they  should  be  used  for  lunch-rooms  during  the 
middle  of  the  day,  and  for  places  of  resort  in  the 
evening.  Many  merchants  and  professional  men, 
and  some  mechanics,  it  was  thought,  would  take 
their  midday  lunch  in  these  clean  and  comfort- 
able places.  The  tables  were  to  be  partly  re- 
moved in  the  evening,  to  give  room  for  free 
movement  and  sociability.  In  each  of  the  rooms 
an  open  fire  was  to  be  kept  in  the  winter,  and 
a  fountain  surrounded  with  flowers  to  cool  and 
sweeten  the  air  in  the  summer.  Coffee,  tea, 
chocolate,  and  milk  were  to  be  always  on  sale, 
with  plenty  of  the  nicest  bakery  rolls,  biscuits, 
and  the  like ;  and  in  the  summer,  lemonade  and 
soda-water  with  syrups  of  the  best  quality,  at 
reasonable  prices.  A  cup  of  coffee  with  rolls 
was  to  cost  but  five  cents ;  a  glass  of  milk  but 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 


175 


three  cents.  Newspapers  were  to  be  furnished, 
and  various  games,  such  as  checkers,  chess,  and 
backgammon,  were  to  be  provided.  It  was 
thought  best  to  make  a  small  charge  for  the  use 
of  the  games,  —  five  cents  for  each  person;  and 
to  avoid,  so  far  as  possible,  every  semblance  of 
gambling  practices,  persons  taking  the  games 
were  required  to  pay  for  them  in  advance.  In 
the  rear  of  the  large  room,  thus  devoted  to  social 
purposes,  was  a  smoking-room,  well  ventilated, 
with  cozy  chairs,  where  smokers  could  take  their 
fill  of  their  peculiar  pleasure  without  encroaching 
upon  the  enjoyment  of  those  to  whom  smoke  is 
not  delectable. 

"After  some  such  general  plan  as  this,  our 
coffee-rooms  were  all  fitted  up,  the  treasurer  of 
the  company  giving  much  time  and  care  to  their 
arrangement.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
there  are  no  saloons  in  Bradford  half  so  pretty 
as  they  are.  And  it  was  believed  that  rooms  so 
furnished  could  be  rented  to  men  who  would 
pay  the  rent  and  a  fair  rate  of  interest  on  the 
capital  invested.  The  problem  was,  of  course, 
to  find  the  right  men  ;  but  there  was  no  lack  of 
applicants  for  the  places,  and  the  selections  seem 
to  have  been  wisely  made.  The  inns  have  all 
paid  expenses,  and  the  stockholders  have  re- 
ceived a  four  per  cent,  dividend  at  the  end  of 
the  first  year.  This  success  is  due,  largely,  to 
the  energy  and  business  tact  of  the  treasurer, 


CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

Mr.  Marble,  who  has  taken  this  for  his  diversion, 
and  has  found  unbounded  satisfaction  in  the 
working  out  of  his  plans.  The  belief  that  the 
opening  of  cozy,  free-and-easy  places  of  refresh- 
ment and  social  resort  would  draw  many  young 
men  away  from  the  liquor  saloons  has  been 
abundantly  justified  by  our  experience." 

"Why  do  you  charge  for  the  games  ?"  asked 
some  one. 

"  For  revenue  only,"  answered  Mr.  Greene. 
"  We  thought  that  habitues  would  be  willing  to 
pay  a  small  price  for  their  use,  and  that  they 
might  feel  a  little  more  comfortable  about  using 
them  if  they  paid  for  them.  There  has  been  no 
complaint  about  the  charge,  and  the  amount 
received  from  this  source  nearly  pays  the  rent 
of  the  building." 

"  Does  your  company  keep  any  control  of  the 
rooms  ?" 

"No;  each  friendly  inn  is  under  the  control 
of  its  own  landlord.  We  make  a  definite  con- 
tract with  him  as  to  the  kinds  of  refreshment  he 
is  to  provide  and  the  prices  he  is  to  charge,  and 
the  general  regulations  of  the  rooms ;  and,  of 
course,  we  visit  the  inns  frequently  to  see  that 
they  are  properly  kept  and  that  the  food  and 
drink  are  of  the  best  quality." 

"  Do  you  think  that  this  has  had  any  marked 
effect  in  reducing  the  amount  of  drunkenness  ?" 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  l^ 

"  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  great  reduction 
shown  by  our  police  reports  in  the  amount  of 
drunkenness  during  the  past  year  is  largely  due 
to  the  friendly  inns." 

As  Mr.  Greene  was  stepping  down  from  the 
platform,  amid  the  applause  of  the  convention, 
Mr.  Strong  interrupted  him  : 

"You  have  two  minutes  more.  Are  there  not 
some  other  features  of  your  charitable  work  in 
Bradford  of  which  you  ought  to  tell  us  ?" 

"  I  should  be  glad,"  answered  the  Bradford 
secretary,  laughing,  "  to  take  twenty  minutes 
more  and  tell  you  about  our  Employment 
Agency,  our  Industrial  School,  our  Kindergar- 
tens, and  our  Day  Nursery,  all  of  which  have 
sprung  up  in  connection  with  our  Charity  Organ- 
ization society,  and  all  of  which  are  important 
departments  of  its  work.  But  I  have  talked  too 
long  already ;  if  any  one  wants  to  know  more 
about  these  forms  of  our  Christian  League  work, 
I  will  show  them  to  you  this  afternoon.  They 
will  speak  best  for  themselves." 

For  the  reports  of  the  other  county  secreta- 
ries, there  is  no  room  in  these  chronicles.  In 
many  of  their  features  they  were  similar  to  those 
already  presented.  They  filled  the  morning 
session,  and  the  interest  had  not  flagged  when 
the  hour  for  adjournment  came. 


12 


XVI. 

THE  afternoon  session,  according  to  the  an- 
nouncement, was  devoted  to  the  reading  of 
two  carefully  prepared  papers :  the  one  by  the 
Reverend  Dr.  Smalls,  of  New  Liverpool,  on 
"The  True  Definition  of  the  Church,"  in  which 
he  defended  the  proposition  that  the  Church 
consists  of  all  the  faithful  people  residing  in  any 
given  community  —  that  there  is  but  one  Church 
in  any  city  or  town,  though  there  may  be  many 
congregations,  worshiping  in  different  places  by 
different  forms,  and  that  the  different  congre- 
gations ought  to  recognize  themselves  as  one 
Church  and  behave  themselves  accordingly.  The 
other  paper,  read  by  Thomas  Marshall,  Esq., 
of  Northbridge,  on  "  Temperance  and  Tenement 
Houses,"  proved  to  be  a  most  luminous  exposi- 
tion of  the  effects  of  unsanitary  dwellings  upon 
the  drinking  habits  of  the  people,  together  with 
accounts  of  some  of  the  recent  experiments  made 
by  capitalists  in  the  erection  of  improved  tene- 
ment houses,  well  lighted,  ventilated,  and  drained, 


THE    CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE. 


1/9 


and  of  the  obvious  effects  upon  the  morals  of 
their  occupants.  But  as  these  papers  were 
printed  in  full  in  the  Bradford  "  Courier"  of  the 
next  day,  and  must  still  be  easily  procurable, 
there  is  no  need  to  reproduce  them  here. 

For  the  same  reason,  it  is  unnecessary  to  report 
the  two  short  speeches  of  the  evening  session. 
One  matter,  however,  of  deepest  interest,  must 
not  be  passed  by.  After  the  second  speaker  had 
taken  his  seat,  Dr.  Upson  rose : 

"I  am  sorry,"  he  began,  "to  announce  to  this 
convention  the  only  failure  on  our  programme. 
Dr.  Jackson,  of  Winchester,  who  was  to  make 
the  closing  speech,  sends  us  a  dispatch,  which 
was  received  since  the  afternoon  session,  inform- 
ing us  that  a  railway  accident  on  the  Western 
road  will  prevent  him  from  keeping  his  engage- 
ment. You  will  regret  that  as  much  as  I  do. 
But  there  are  always  compensations  for  our 
losses,  if  we  know  where  to  look  for  them  ;  and 
I  think  that  I  am  on  the  track  of  one.  The 
secretary  of  our  Executive  Committee,  Mr. 
Walter  Franklin  —  (applause) — has  been  receiv- 
ing a  good  many  letters  from  distant  places, 
making  inquiries  about  the  working  of  the 
League,  and  giving  information  of  movements 
that  have  been  set  on  foot  in  other  States  with 
the  view  of  carrying  out  its  principles.  I  am 
sure  that  he  could  give  us,  if  he  would,  some 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

interesting  and  cheering  reports.  I  have  be- 
sought him  to  do  so,  but  he  has  not  consented ; 
I  am  going  now  to  pass  him  over  to  you,  and 
let  you  deal  with  him  as  seems  good  to  you." 

The  convention  expressed  its  will  in  such  a 
way  that  Mr.  Franklin  could  not  easily  resist. 
He  ascended  the  platform,  amid  a  storm  of 
cheers. 

"Perhaps  I  otfght  to  beg  your  pardon,"  he 
said,  "  for  hesitating  to  bring  you  such  tidings 
as  I  have ;  my  only  reason  is  my  strong  aver- 
sion to  the  sound  of  my  own  voice  in  a  public 
place.  But  there  are,  as  Dr.  Upson  has  told  you, 
quite  a  number  of  letters  and  newspaper  clip- 
pings in  my  portfolio,  showing  the  wide  interest 
taken  in  our  work,  of  which  I  will  try  to  tell  you 
something. 

"  The  most  amusing  letters  I  receive  are  from 
persons  who  profess  to  be  greatly  interested  in 
the  history  of  our  League,  and  who  think  the 
plan  a  beautiful  one,  but  who  fear  that  it  is  not 
practicable.  There  is  no  conservative  so  enter- 
taining as  your  conservative  who  disputes  an  ac- 
complished fact.  You  know  that  Dr.  Dionysius 
Lardner  proved,  scientifically,  that  no  vessel 
could  be  moved  across  the  ocean  by  steam- 
power  after  the  thing  had  been  done.  You  know 
that  an  eminent  electrician  demolished  the  proj- 
ect of  submarine  telegraphy  after  messages  had 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  l%1 

crossed  the  sea.  And  in  like  manner  the  meas- 
ure of  cooperation  in  Christian  work  proposed 
in  the  organization  of  the  Christian  League  is 
demonstrated  to  be  impracticable  by  a  theorist 
here  and  there,  long  after  the  thing  has  been 
successfully  worked  out  in  many  places.  I  will 
not  trouble  you  with  reading  any  of  these  letters ; 
I  have  stuck  them  on  pins  to  be  preserved  in  my 
museum  ;  about  fifty  years  from  now  they  will 
be  highly  interesting  reading. 

"  Very  amusing,  also,  are  the  letters  from 
mystified  correspondents,  who  wish  to  know 
whether  there  is  a  veritable  Christian  League  in 
Connecticut.  If  they  could  only  look  into  this 
crowded  room  and  hear  the  noise  you  make,  they 
would  probably  be  convinced  that  the  League  is 
not  a  myth. 

"  The  reports  that  come  to  us  from  all  parts  of 
the  country  show  that  the  ideas  of  our  League 
are  taking  hold  of  the  people,  especially  of  the 
laity,  everywhere.  I  cannot  begin  to  give  you 
any  adequate  notion  of  the  extent  of  their  work- 
ing. Take  this  little  item  which  I  have  clipped 
from  the  last  number  of  one  of  our  religious 
newspapers,  describing  the  payment  of  the  debt 
of  a  Congregational  church  in  a  western  city : 

"  '  The  pleasantest  feature  of  the  occasion  was  the  remarkably 
hearty  and  substantial  expressions  of  interest  on  the  part  of  the 
other  denominations.  They  closed  their  churches  Sabbath  even- 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

ing,  and  some  of  them  in  the  morning  also ;  and  the  several  pas- 
tors were  to  be  seen  moving  among  the  congregation,  soliciting 
subscriptions  from  their  own  people.  Monday  evening,  when  it 
seemed  as  if  the  ability  of  the  audience  had  been  exhausted,  and 
there  remained  several  hundred  dollars  of  the  debt  yet  to  be 
raised,  the  Methodist  pastor  came  to  the  rescue.  By  a  wise  plan, 
which  he  pressed  with  great  skill,  he  raised  the  entire  amount 
amid  great  hand-clapping,  and  declared  that,  next  to  the  pastor, 
he  was  the  happiest  man  in  the  house.' 

"  That  sounds  like  an  echo  from  New  Albion, 
does  it  not  ?  But  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to 
dwell  upon  facts  that  fall  under  your  eyes  in  all 
the  papers.  Let  me  speak  of  a  matter  more  re- 
mote, but  not  less  notable. 

"  It  is  well  known  to  many  of  you  that  the 
sectarianism  which  we  are  organized  to  fight  is 
making  its  worst  ravages  on  our  western  front- 
iers. The  strife  of  the  sects  for  the  occupancy 
of  every  new  settlement  is  the  scandal  of  Chris- 
tianity. Every  man  knows  this  who  has  traveled 
in  the  West  and  found  in  the  small  towns,  on  an 
average,  one  church  for  every  hundred  inhabit- 
ants. From  this  afflicted  region  I  have  had  letters 
not  a  few,  rejoicing  that  this  movement  had  be- 
gun at  the  East,  and  praying  for  the  time  when 
its  tidal  wave  should  begin  to  roll  across  their 
prairies  and  up  their  canons.  From  a  shrewd 
observer,  who  knows  that  western  field  thor- 
'oughly,  and  who  is  in  the  deepest  sympathy 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  ^3 

with  the  Home  Missionary  work,  comes  a  letter, 
from  which  I  will  read  you  a  few  sentences  : 

"  '  The  real  trouble  now  is  with  the  intermediate  agents  of  our 
churches.  I  mean  the  presiding  elders,  the  synodical  mission- 
aries, and  the  district  superintendents  of  missionary  work.  So 
long  as  our  societies  will  appoint  to  such  places  men  whose  only 
qualification  is  business  push  —  men  of  about  the  caliber  of  a 
good  book-agent,  men  who  could  push  a  cyclopedia  in  a  State  — 
so  long  there  will  be  confusion  enough.  I  could  tell  of  some  in 
this  great  work  that  are  perfectly  unscrupulous.  Our  societies 
must  be  made  to  see  that  they  must  get  men  who  will  look  at  the 
work  broadly,  and  build  with  eternity,  not  quarterly  reports,  in 
view.  The  policy  of  each  missionary  society  should  be  expressed, 
not  implied ;  and  agents  should  be  held  to  account  for  pushing  in 
where  not  needed.' 

"  This  extract  shows  that  the  responsibility  for 
the  state  of  things  existing  at  the  West  belongs 
largely  at  the  East.  The  power  behind  this 
pushing  propagandism  has  its  head-quarters  in 
Boston  and  New  York.  If  you  want  to  get  at 
it,  you  can  easily  reach  it.  But  let  me  give  you 
another  bit  of  the  same  letter.  Speaking  of  the 
results  of  this  sectarian  scramble  at  the  West, 
the  writer  says: 

'"I  am  quite  sure  it  is  very  seriously  affecting  the  character 
of  our  ministry.  Who  but  a  mean-spirited  man  will  consent  to 
be  one  of  five  in  a  town  of  five  hundred  people  ?  Then,  is  it  not 
near  to  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  thus  to  misuse  the  gifts  of 
the  Spirit  ?  What  wonder  ministers  are  scarce,  when  they  are 
employed  in  this  way,  four  or  five  crowded  into  a  place  where 


1 84 


THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 


there  is  need  of  but  one,  and  set  in  antagonism  and  rivalry,  with 
no  chance  to  develop  any  spiritual  power  ?  And  all  the  while  the 
world  is  full  of  heathenism !  Really,  this  is  the  most  serious 
phase  of  the  question.  A  gift  of  the  Spirit,  a  man  furnished  by 
the  Spirit  for  the  ministry,  is  a  gift  infinitely  more  precious  than 
the  money  to  feed  him ;  and  the  misuse  of  such  an  one,  or  the 
misapplication  of  the  gift,  comes  nearer  to  malfeasance  than  any 
misuse  of  funds. ' 

"This  man  writes  out  of  his  heart,  you  see. 
And  he  writes  not  unadvisedly.  No  man  in  the 
West  is  better  qualified  to  judge.  And  I  beg 
you  to  note  what  he  says  respecting  the  effect 
of  sectarianism  on  the  character  of  ministers.  I 
confess  that  this  was  to  me  a  flash  of  revelation. 
But  who  can  question  the  truth  of  it  ?  What 
kind  of  a  Christian  is  the  man  likely  to  become 
whose  character  is  developed  in  these  denomina- 
tional bear-fights  ?  What  kind  of  a  Christian  is 
the  man  who  is  ready  to  rush  into  them  ?  I  tell 
you,  high-minded  young  men  will  not  do  it. 
And  many  a  young  man  who  would  gladly 
give  his  life  to  pioneer  work  on  the  frontiers, 
turns  back  when  he  sees  into  what  sort  of  scrim- 
mage he  is  pretty  sure  to  be  driven. 

"  But  I  am  only  showing  you  the  evils  of 
this  denominational  strife.  Of  these  you  hardly 
needed  to  be  told,  though  my  correspondent 
may  have  thrown  new  light  on  their  deformity. 
What  I  began  to  tell  you  was  the  good  news 
that  the  Christian  League  has  been  heard  of  on 


OF  CONNECTICUT.  185 

the  frontiers,  and  that  its  good  seed  is  beginning 
to  find  lodgment  in  a  soil  where  it  ought  to  bring 
forth  a  hundred  fold.  We  have  heard  some 
cheerful  tidings  here  to-day,  but  none  to  me  so 
significant  as  this  which  I  read  you  from  the 
representative  of  one  of  our  Home  Mission 
boards  in  the  far  West.  He  tells  of  a  conference, 
lasting  all  day,  between  the  Home  Missionary 
representatives  of  four  leading  denominations, — 
four  men  who  have  the  oversight  of  two  or  three 
Territories.  He  says  that  they  came  to  this  con- 
ference with  the  Christian  League  in  their  minds, 
and  this  is  his  report  of  what  came  of  it : 

"'We  did  not  organize;  had  no  chairman  or  secretary,  and 
passed  no  votes,  but  simply  looked  one  another  in  the  face,  and 
tried  to  look  the  facts  of  the  field  in  the  face.  We  took  up  the  case 

of  each  place  —  went  from ,  on  the ,  to ,  covering  the 

whole  field.  We  did  not  realize  my  highest  ideal  of  such  a  meet- 
ing, which  would  be  the  consulting  entirely  as  though  we  were 
of  one  denomination ;  but  I  believe  it  was  a  long  step  in  the  right 
direction.  We  have  arranged  not  to  go  into  a  town  where  another 
denomination  is  at  work,  when  there  is  any  chance  for  misunder- 
standing, without  consulting  with  the  representatives  of  the 
church  in  that  town,  or  with  the  superintendent  of  mission  work. 
We  have  promised  one  another  not  to  take  advantage  of  tem- 
porary bad  luck  in  getting  ministers.  We  have  arranged  to 
exchange  fields  and  properties,  as  far  as  possible,  when  it  becomes 
evident  that  the  best  interests  of  the  cause  demand  it.  I  have, 

for  instance,  given  up  our  church  at  — —  to  the ists,  as  the 

people  are  nearly  all  of  that  faith  and  ask  for  a ist  minister. 

The ists  have  given  up  a  field  to  me.  The ans  promise  not 

to  enter  a  field  where  we  have  a  church,  though  pressed  by  some 
to  do  so.  We  have  arranged  for  another  meeting  in  six  months.' 


1 86  THE   CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE 

"  Now,  I  say  that's  the  best  report  we  have 
had  to-day.  It  makes  me  feel  more  like  shout- 
ing hallelujah !  than  anything  I've  heard  for 
many  a  day.  And  if  this  were  my  meeting- 
house, and  were  not  the  meeting-house  of  a 
very  staid  and  undemonstrative  body  of  disciples 
(laughter),  I  should  call  for  three  cheers  for  those 
grand  fellows  out  West  who  have  got  the  denom- 
inational devil  fairly  under,  and  who  have  set  out 
to  treat  one  another,  in  their  mission  work,  like 
Christian  gentlemen!" 

As  Mr.  Franklin  went  down  from  the  platform, 
amid  a  tempest  of  hand-clapping,  the  organ  and 
the  choir  burst  forth  with  the  doxology,  in  which 
the  congregation  joined,  and  the  convention 
went  out  in  a  blaze  of  enthusiasm. 

Mr.  Strong  and  his  English  friend  walked 
quietly  away  to  their  lodgings.  The  first  to 
speak,  when  they  were  out  of  the  hubbub,  was 
Mr.  Thornton : 

"  Doesn't  your  friend  need  a  vacation  ?" 

"Franklin?" 

"The  same." 

"  He  does,  indeed.  I  have  been  urging  him 
to  go  abroad." 

"  He  must  go.  He  shall  go.  I  want  him  to 
help  me  organize  a  Christian  League  Club  in 
Manchester.  That  is  the  place  to  begin." 

"  Do  you  think  it  would  work  on  your  side 
the  water  ?" 


OF  CONNECTICUT. 

"  Why    shouldn't   it  ?     It   might   need    some 
modifications.     But    it  proposes    nothing   more 
than  the  Christianizing  of  our  churches." 
"  And  nothing  less,  you  might  add." 
"  And   nothing  less !     It  is  a  great  thing  to 
undertake,  but  he   would   be  a  faithless  Chris- 
tian who  should  doubt  whether  it  could  come 
to  pass." 


A   POSTSCRIPT. 


From  TJie  Century  Magazine  for  September,  1883. 


THANK  you,  Mr.  Editor,  for  giving  me  just 
the  chance  I  want  to  grind  my  own  little 
hatchet.  Your  types,  far  better  than  my  hecto- 
graph, .will  multiply  the  answer  that  I  ought  to 
make  to  the  many  who  are  writing  me  kind  and 
curious  letters  about  "  The  Christian  League  of 
Connecticut."  Mr.  Franklin  mentioned,  at  the 
last  convention,  the  large  correspondence  which 
had  grown  out  of  his  connection  with  the 
League  as  its  secretary ;  and  upon  me,  as  its 
historian,  an  almost  equal  burden  has  been 
thrown.  Some  of  the  inquirers  write  to  head- 
quarters, as  they  should ;  but  letters  directed  to 
the  League  at  Hartford  are  sometimes  forwarded 
to  me.  A  few  of  my  English  correspondents 
seem  to  be  puzzled  by  the  geography,  but  that 
is  nothing  strange  for  Englishmen.  If  Mr. 
Franklin  should  visit  England,  as  I  hope  he 
may,  he  will  undoubtedly  prepare  a  large  map, 
after  the  manner  of  the  missionary  secretaries, 
showing  the  location  of  the  principal  League 


A  POSTSCRIPT. 

Clubs,  and  indicating  with  spots  of  some  bright 
color  the  towns  in  which  churches  have  been 
consolidated.  I  trust  that  my  English  friends 
will  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  of  hear- 
ing Mr.  Franklin's  lecture,  if  for  no  other  pur- 
pose, that  they  may  obtain  a  little  information 
about  American  geography. 

The  grateful  and  appreciative  words  that  have 
come  to  me  from  all  quarters  give  me  far  greater 
honor  than  belongs  to  me.  In  making  the 
record  that  I  have  made  of  this  beneficent  move- 
ment, I  have  only  done  my  duty.  The  praise 
is  due  to  those — and  they  are  many,  nor  do 
they  all  live  in  Connecticut — in  whose  minds 
and  hearts  this  impulse  toward  cooperation  in 
Christian  work  lives  and  grows  from  year  to 
year.  It  is  plain  that  a  destructive  analysis  has 
done  its  worst  upon  the  Church,  and  that  we 
have  reached  a  period  of  reconstruction  and 
synthesis.  The  fragments  of  the  great  denomi- 
nations steadily  gravitate  together ;  the  Presby- 
terians, North  and  South,  are  beginning  to  talk 
in  their  assemblies  about  coming  together,  and 
disunion  can  never  survive  discussion.  No  man 
can  give  a  Christian  reason  for  opposing  re- 
union ;  every  reason  against  it  is  drawn  from 
selfish  considerations  or  hateful  passions  which 
Christian  men  cannot  long  justify  themselves  in 
cherishing.  When  the  Presbyterians  come 
together,  the  Methodists  and  the  Baptists  can- 


190 


A   POSTSCRIPT. 


not  afford  to  stay  apart,  and  we  shall  presently 
see  the  centripetal  forces  acting  as  vigorously  as 
the  centrifugal  forces  have  been  acting  for  a 
century  or  two.  All  this  is  in  the  air.  He  who 
cannot  discern  it  is  dull-witted  indeed.  I  have 
only  reported  the  movements  of  the  Zeitgeist. 

Mr.  Franklin  made  a  few  quotations  from  his 
letters.  Let  me  give  an  extract  or  two  from 
mine,  to  indicate  the  depth  of  the  feeling  on 
this  subject,  and  the  social  and  ecclesiastical  con- 
ditions out  of  which  this  feeling  springs.  A 
minister  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
New  England  writes  to  me  as  follows : 

"You  see  from  my  address  where  I  am.  Here  are  five 
churches  and  only  eight  hundred  people  in  the  entire  township. 

The church  has  no  regular  preaching.    The  other  churches 

are  in  good  order  as  to  buildings  and  parsonages.  The  Method- 
ists are  said  to  have  the  largest  congregations.  At  my  first 
service,  last  Sunday,  there  were  eighty-six.  The  salaries  are 
three  hundred  and  fifty  or  four  hundred  dollars  and  rent,  save 

that  the  clergyman  has  to  pay  his  rent  from  his  salary  of 

four  hundred  dollars.  *  *  *  It  seems  to  me  that  as  long  as 
such  churches  can  get  men  to  be  pastors  they  will  stick  to  their 
narrow  denominational  ideas  and  have  different  churches.  But 
I  do  not  think  that  God  has  called  me  into  the  ministry  for  any 
such  purpose.  One  of  the  clergymen  said  he  had  been  very 
happy  here  for  ten  years,  and  thought  I  should  be.  I  cannot  be, 
unless  I  can  bring  about  some  union  of  these  churches.  Wilh 
the  call  for  men  to  heathen  lands  and  the  West,  how  can 
I  be  happy  here  ?  *  *  *  This  much  is  settled.  I  cannot 
give  my  life  to  the  preservation  of  mere  denominational  lines. 
What  can  I  do  in  the  way  of  the  Christian  League  ?  Have  you 
those  articles  in  pamphlet  form  ?  If  I  could  put  one  in  every 
family  here,  and  call  a  meeting  in  the  large,  beautiful  town  hall !  " 


A   POSTSCRIPT.  lgl 

The  good  man  in  his  perplexity  sees  a  glim- 
mer of  light  in  the  West ;  but  there  is  reason  to 
fear  that  his  flight  thither  would  prove  to  be  only 
a  translation  from  a  Yankee  frying-pan  to  a 
prairie  fire,  as  the  following  extracts  will  show. 
The  writer  of  the  letter  from  which  they  are 
taken  is  a  Congregational  minister  in  the  far 
West — a  man  with  the  most  ample  knowledge 
of  all  that  region,  and  with  a  grasp  of  mind  and 
a  temper  of  soul  that  speak  for  themselves : 

"  I  am  convinced  that  if  the  policy  of  our  missionary  societies 
could  be  this,  to  have  fewer  churches  and  better,  to  withdraw 
from  competition  in  many  a  hopeless  field,  that  we  may  do  the 
right  thing  where  the  way  is  open  and  the  need  great,  we  should 
do  a  much  better  work  than  we  do.  Only  last  week  I  was  told 

by  Rev. ,  who  has  long  known  Kansas,  that  he  knew 

of  fifty  places  in  which  the  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians 
should  unite.  If  that  could  be  done  so  that  there  would  be  twenty- 
five  less  Congregational  churches  and  twenty-five  less  Presby- 
terian, there  would  be  (i)  a  saving  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
missionary  money;  (2)  a  saving  of  an  indefinite  amount  for 
church  buildings ;  (3)  the  release  of  fifty  men  to  preach  the 
Gospel  in  other  places  ;  (4)  fifty  fields  that  would  be  an  attrac- 
tion to  men  of  spirit,  in  the  place  of  fifty  fields  that  no  one  but  a 
mendicant  would  think  of  taking. 

"/  am  not  at  all  surprised  at  the  scarcity  of  ministers.  The 
policy  of  our  home  missionary  societies  tends  to  keep  men  from 
the  ministry.  We  have  a  dead  and  dreary  level  of  little  churches 
that  offer  no  inviting  field  for  young  men.  It  is  easy  to  say  that 
any  young  man  fit  for  the  ministry  ought  to  be  ready  to  enter 
the  smallest  field,  that  he  ought  to  have  the  spiritual  efficiency 
to  make  his  small  field  a  large  one.  I  have  said  this  myself.  It 
is  the  true  thing  to  say.  But  if  the  field  is  small,  not  because  of 
the  wickedness  of  sinners,  but  because  of  the  folly  of  saints  and 
the  mistakes  of  the  home  missionary  authorities,  the  case  becomes 
hopeless.  We  must  expect  to  begin  small  in  new  places ;  the 


192 


A   POSTSCRIPT. 


trouble  is  that  our  fields  remain  small,  and  must  remain  so  while 
this  mistaken  policy  continues.  If  a  young  man  is  asked  to 
endure  hardships  for  Christ's  sake,  by  all  means  let  us  not  take 
the  courage  out  of  him  by  false  pity ;  but  if  it  turns  out  that  the 
call  for  self-sacrifice  is  not  for  Christ  at  all,  but  for  our  Church,  we 
need  not  wonder,if  the  truest  consecration  comes  to  be  a  forgotten 
grace,  and  that  the  best  men  cannot  be  found  for  the  ministry." 

The  writers  of  these  letters  —  and  I  have  many 
like  them  —  are  not  theorists  ;  they  are  men  who 
stand  in  the  midst  of  this  sectarian  confusion, 
and  who  are  doing  their  best  to  bring  a  little 
order  out  of  its  tumult,  and  to  mix  a  little  sweet- 
ness with  its  bitter  waters.  Such  voices  have  a 
right  to  be  heard,  and  they  will  be  heard.  The 
men  who  have  the  ordering  of  the  work  of  our 
home  missionary  societies  must  attend  to  these 
mischiefs  at  once.  Some  of  them,  as  I  happen 
to  know,  are  heartily  disposed  to  do  so ;  others, 
I  fear,  are  ready  to  wink  at  any  amount  of 
"scrouging"  if  it  do  but  inure  to  the  benefit  of 
their  respective  sects. 

I  will  add  but  one  word  more,  that  the 
scarcity  of  ministers,  so  much  complained  of, 
is  due,  as  my  Western  correspondent  shows,  to 
the  spirit  of  schism,  perhaps  quite  as  much  as 
to  any  other  cause.  There  would  be  no  lack  of 
ministers,  even  numerically,  if  the  churches  that 
have  no  right  to  exist  were  blotted  out.  And 
if  that  were  done,  we  should  soon  report  a  great 
gain  not  only  in  the  number,  but  also  in  the 
quality  of  the  men  seeking  the  ministry. 


lllllHIWH"111111111"1 "'"" ' 


